Quantum signatures of chaos in relativistic quantum billiards with shapes of circle- and ellipse-sectors*

Abstract

AbstractAccording to the Berry–Tabor conjecture, the spectral properties of typical nonrelativistic quantum systems with an integrable classical counterpart agree with those of Poissonian random numbers. We investigate to what extend it applies to relativistic neutrino billiards (NBs) consisting of a spin-1/2 particle confined to a bounded planar domain by imposing suitable boundary conditions (BCs). In distinction to nonrelativistic quantum billiards (QBs), NBs do not have a well-defined classical counterpart. However, the peaks in the length spectra, that is, the modulus of the Fourier transform of the spectral density from wave number to length, of NBs are just like for QBs at the lengths of periodic orbits of the classical billiard (CB). This implies that there must be a connection between NBs and the dynamic of the CB. We demonstrate that NBs with shapes of circle- and ellipse-sectors with an integrable classical dynamic, obtained by cutting the circle and ellipse NB along symmetry lines, have no common eigenstates with the latter and that, indeed, their spectral properties can be similar to those of classically chaotic QBs. These features orginate from the intermingling of symmetries of the spinor components and the discontinuity in the BCs leading to contradictory conditional equations at corners connecting curved and straight boundary parts. To corroborate the necessity of the curved boundary part in order to generate GOE-like behavior, we furthermore consider the right-angled triangle NB constructed by halving the equilateral-triangle NB along a symmetry axis. For an understanding of these findings in terms of purely classical quantities we use the semiclassical approach recently developed for massive NBs, and Poincaré–Husimi distributions of the eigenstates in classical phase space. The results indicate, that in the ultrarelativistic limit these NBs do not show the behavior expected for classically chaotic QBs.