Dynamics of pulsed SU(1,1) coherent states

Abstract

In this paper we consider the time evolution of SU(1,1) coherent states driven by a coherence-preserving Hamiltonian containing periodic or quasiperiodic pulsing terms. This is a generalization of a system consisting of a two-level atom subjected to quasiperiodic pulsing that was recently studied by Milonni, Ackerhalt, and Goggin [Phys. Rev. A 35, 1714 (1987)]. The time-evolution operator in our case is given by a product of two finite group transformations of SU(1,1). Assuming an initial SU(1,1) coherent state, we determine the equivalent classical motion generated by a Poincaré map that is a Möbius transformation on the Lobachevski plane, the interior of the unit circle in the complex plane. The quantum-mechanical evolution of the state vector is calculated exactly and in closed form even though the Hilbert space is infinite dimensional. We also study the autocorrelation function which, as in the work of Milonni, Ackerhalt, and Goggin, is found to decay in the case of quasiperiodic pulsing that may possibly be associated with a manifestation of chaos in a quantum-mechanical system.