Persistent revivals in a system of trapped bosonic atoms

Abstract

Dynamical signatures of quantum chaos are observed in the survival probability of different initial states, in a system of cold atoms trapped in a linear chain with site noise and open boundary conditions. It is shown that chaos is present in the region of small disorder, at intermediate energies. The study is performed with different number of sites and atoms: 7, 8 and 9, but focusing on the case where the particle density is one. States of the occupation basis with energies in the chaotic region are evolved at long times. Remarkable differences in the behavior of the survival probability are found for states with different energy-eigenbasis participation ratio (PR). Whereas those with large PR clearly exhibit the characteristic random-matrix correlation hole before equilibration, those with small PR present a marginal or even no correlation hole which is replaced by revivals lasting up to the stage of equilibration, suggesting a connection with the quantum scarring phenomenon.