Entanglement, fidelity and quantum chaos in cavity QED

Nonlinear dynamics in the fundamental interaction between a two-level atom with recoil and a quantized radiation field in a high-quality microcavity is studied. We consider the strongly coupled atom–field system as a quantum–classical hybrid with dynamically coupled quantum and classical degrees of freedom. We show that, even in the absence of any other interaction with environment, the coupling of quantum and classical degrees of freedom provides the emergence of classical dynamical chaos from quantum electrodynamics. Chaos manifests itself in the atomic external degree of freedom as a random walking of an atom inside a cavity with prominent fractal-like behavior and in the quantum atom–field degrees of freedom as a sensitive dependence of atomic inversion on small variations in initial conditions. It is shown that dependences of variance of quantum entanglement and of the maximum Lyapunov exponent on the detuning of the atom–field resonance correlate strongly. It is shown that the Jaynes–Cummings dynamics can be unstable in the regime of chaotic walking of an atom in the quantized field of a standing wave in the absence of any other interaction with environment. Quantum instability manifests itself in strong variations of quantum purity and entropy and in exponential sensitivity of fidelity of quantum states to small variations in the atom–field detuning. It is quantified in terms of the respective classical maximal Lyapunov exponent that can be estimated in appropriate in–out experiments. This result provides a quantum–classical correspondence in a closed physical system.