Driven Rydberg Atoms Reveal Quartic Level Repulsion

Krzysztof Sacha, Jakub Zakrzewski
2001 Physical Review Letters  
The dynamics of Rydberg states of a hydrogen atom subject simultaneously to uniform static electric field and two microwave fields with commensurate frequencies is considered in the range of small fields amplitudes. In the certain range of the parameters of the system the classical secular motion of the electronic ellipse reveals chaotic behavior. Quantum mechanically, when the fine structure of the atom is taken into account, the energy level statistics obey predictions appropriate for the symplectic Gaussian random matrix ensemble.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.86.2269 pmid:11289906 fatcat:yjkbhktzcjeurhl7yt5xmcwkg4