Abstract

The experimental study of quantum chaos in atom optics has previously centered on quantum effects in a regime of classical phase space that is globally chaotic.^1,2 For these studies it was sufficient to use initial conditions consisting of a band in phase space, localized in momentum but uniformly distributed in position. The situation is more complicated for the generic case of a mixed phase space, characterized by islands of regular motion surrounded by regions of chaos. This direction of research presents important theoretical and experimental challenges. In this case, a band for the initial conditions will cause the dynamics of many different regions of phase space to be represented in the final distribution, making analysis and detailed study of the phase space structure difficult. Therefore, a mixed phase space requires initial localization in both momentum and position.

© 1997 Optical Society of America