Regular and chaotic classical dynamics in the U(5)-SU(3) quantum phase transition of the IBM

Abstract

We study the classical dynamics in a generic first-order quantum phase transition between the U(5) and SU(3) limits of the interacting boson model. The dynamics is chaotic, of Hénon-Heiles type, in the spherical phase and is regular, yet sensitive to local degeneracies, in the deformed phase. Both types of dynamics persist in the coexistence region resulting in a divided phase space.

Comments: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proc. Beauty in Physics: Theory and Experiment, in honor of Francesco Iachello's 70th birthday, May 14-18, 2012, Cocoyoc, Mexico