Quantum nonlinear dynamics of continuously measured systems

Abstract

Classical dynamics is formulated as a Hamiltonian flow in phase space, while quantum mechanics is formulated as unitary dynamics in Hilbert space. These different formulations have made it difficult to directly compare quantum and classical nonlinear dynamics. Previous solutions have focused on computing quantities associated with a statistical ensemble such as variance or entropy. However a more direct comparison would compare classical predictions to the quantum predictions for continuous simultaneous measurement of position and momentum of a single system. In this paper we give a theory of such measurement and show that chaotic behavior in classical systems can be reproduced by continuously measured quantum systems.