Probing quantum chaos in many-body quantum systems by the induced dissipation

Abstract

We theoretically analyze the depletion dynamics of an ensemble of cold atoms in a quasi-one-dimensional optical lattice where atoms in one of the lattice sites are subject to decay. Unlike the previous studies of this problem in Labouvie et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 235302 (2016), we focus on the case where the system is brought to the chaotic regime, which crucially modifies the depletion dynamics as compared to the regular case. It is shown that depletion of the affected site results in gradual depletion of the neighboring sites according to the t1/3 scaling law. We also show that by measuring occupations of the lattice sites one can extract important information on chaotic dynamics of the original conservative system.