Traditional optical phase imprinting of matter waves is of a dynamical nature. In this paper we show that both Abelian and non-Abelian geometric phases can be optically imprinted onto matter waves, yielding a number of interesting phenomena such as wavepacket re-directing and wavepacket splitting. In addition to their fundamental interest, our results open up new opportunities for robust optical control of matter waves.
Using recent results in the field of quantum chaos we derive explicit expressions for the time scale of decoherence induced by the system-environment entanglement. For a generic system-environment interaction and for a generic quantum chaotic system as environment, conditions are derived for energy eigenstates to be preferred states in the weak coupling regime. A simple model is introduced to numerically confirm our predictions. The results presented here may also help understanding the dynamics of quantum entanglement generation in chaotic quantum systems.
Low-order quantum resonances manifested by directed currents have been realized with cold atoms. Here we show that by increasing the strength of an experimentally achievable delta-kicking ratchet potential, quantum resonances of a very high order may naturally emerge and can induce larger ratchet currents than low-order resonances, with the underlying classical limit being fully chaotic. The results offer a means of controlling quantum transport of cold atoms.
