The quantum driven pendulum and quantum phase space tunneling

Summary form only given. The quantum driven pendulum can be implemented using laser cooled rubidium atoms which are exposed to a far detuned amplitude modulated standing wave. This system allows controlled variation of the effective Planck´s constant and the amount of coupling to the environment (decoherence). Therefore it is possible to undertake experiments in both classical and quantum regimes of the dynamics of these atoms. The potential can be extremely well approximated as one-dimensional, making the system ideal for simulation using a master equation or quantum trajectories. The dynamics of the system feature distinct regions of regular motion (second order resonances) bounded by a sea of chaos. The resonances are observed as side peaks in the atomic momentum distribution, which each contain up to 30% of the atoms initially in the trap. We report on the results of our experiments to achieve quantum phase space tunneling. After adiabatic elimination of the excited state, the Hamiltonian describing the system is given. The evolution of the quantum driven pendulum can be described with the Floquet operator. Eigenstates of the Floquet operator may be identified with fixed points in phase space. Starting the evolution in a superposition of two Floquet states which is localised in one resonance, time evolution leads to localisation in the other fixed point. This is a coherent tunneling process forbidden by classical dynamics. To observe this tunneling process it is important to localise the superposition of Floquet states in one fixed point. We discuss the effectiveness of alternative methods of loading most of the atoms into a single resonance in order to observe quantum phase space tunneling.