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Published on: May 30, 2014
Boltzmann-Loschmidt Dispute Reloaded: Quantum 150 Years Later
Leonardo Ermann1, Alexei D Chepelianskii2, Dima L Shepelyansky3
1Departamento de Física Teórica, GIyA, Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, Av. del Libertador 8250, Buenos Aires 1429, Argentina.
Abstract:
The Boltzmann-Loschmidt dispute of 1876 questioned the possibility of a statistical irreversible description by time-reversible classical equations of motion of atoms. Here we show analytically and numerically that the quantum chaos diffusion of cold atoms, or ions, in a harmonic trap and pulsed optical lattice can be inverted back in time with up to 100% efficiency. This is in sharp contrast to classical evolution, where exponentially small errors break time reversibility. We argue that the existing experimental skills allow highlighting the Boltzmann-Loschmidt dispute from a quantum perspective.
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