Abstract
We use a modulated oscillator to study quantum fluctuations far from thermal equilibrium. A simple but important nonequilibrium effect that we discuss first is quantum heating, where quantum fluctuations lead to a finite-width distribution of a resonantly modulated oscillator over its quasienergy (Floquet) states. We also discuss the recent observation of quantum heating. We analyze large rare fluctuations responsible for the tail of the quasienergy distribution and switching between metastable states of forced vibrations. We find the most probable paths followed by the quasienergy in rare events, and in particular in switching. Along with the switching rates, such paths are observable characteristics of quantum fluctuations. As we show, they can change discontinuously once the detailed balance condition is broken. A different kind of quantum heating occurs where oscillators are modulated nonresonantly. Nonresonant modulation can also cause oscillator cooling. We discuss different microscopic mechanisms of these effects.
Highlights
The last few years have seen an upsurge in the interest in the dynamics of modulated nonlinear oscillators [1]
Since the cavity mode serves as a thermal bath for the mirror, this term is fully analogous to Hi(F ), with qb 0 playing the role of h(bF ). It follows from the results of this paper that a modulated nonlinear oscillator displays a number of quantum fluctuation phenomena that have no analog in systems in thermal equilibrium
Oscillator relaxation is accompanied by a nonequilibrium quantum noise
Summary
The last few years have seen an upsurge in the interest in the dynamics of modulated nonlinear oscillators [1]. One of the general physics problems addressed with modulated nonlinear oscillators is fluctuation-induced switching in systems that lack detailed balance, see [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14] for the classical and [15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26] for the quantum regime. We develop an approach to calculating the rate of quantum activation, which naturally connects to the conventional formulation of the rare events theory in chemical and biological reaction systems and in population dynamics [32, 33] This approach provides a new insight into the fragility of the switching rate of the oscillator. We provide a brief comment in order to unify various mechanisms of the change of the quantum distribution of the oscillator by nonresonant modulation
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