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In a thermal ensemble of atoms driven by coherent fields, how does evolution of quantum superposition compete with classical dynamics of optical pumping and atomic diffusion? Is it optical pumping that first prepares a thermal ensemble, with coherent superposition developing subsequently or is it the other way round: coherently superposed atoms driven to steady state via optical pumping? Using a stroboscopic probing technique, here we experimentally explore these questions. A 100 ns pulse is used to probe an experimentally simulated, closed three-level, lambda-like configuration in rubidium atoms, driven by strong coherent control and incoherent fields. Temporal evolution of probe transmission shows an initial overshoot with turn-on of control, resulting in a scenario akin to lasing without inversion (LWI). The corresponding rise time is dictated by coherent dynamics, with a distinct experimental signature of half-cycle Rabi flop in a thermal ensemble of atoms. Our results indicate that, in fact, optical pumping drives the atoms to a steady state in a significantly longer time-scale that sustains superposed dark states. Eventual control turn-off leads to a sudden fall in transmission with an ubiquitous signature for identifying closed and open systems. Numerical simulations and toy-model predictions confirm our claims. These studies reveal new insights into a rich and complex dynamics associated with atoms in thermal ensemble, which are otherwise absent in state-prepared, cold atomic ensembles.

Interacting quantum systems evolving from an uncorrelated composite initial state generically develop quantum correlations -- entanglement. As a consequence, a local description of interacting quantum system is impossible as a rule. A unitarily evolving (isolated) quantum system generically develops extensive entanglement: the magnitude of the generated entanglement will increase without bounds with the effective Hilbert space dimension of the system. It is conceivable, that coupling of the interacting subsystems to local dephasing environments will restrict the generation of entanglement to such extent, that the evolving composite system may be considered as approximately disentangled. This conjecture is addressed in the context of some common models of a bipartite system with linear and nonlinear interactions and local coupling to dephasing environments. Analytical and numerical results obtained imply that the conjecture is generally false. Open dynamics of the quantum correlations is compared to the corresponding evolution of the classical correlations and a qualitative difference is found.

We experimentally investigate the dynamics of classical and quantum correlations of a Bell diagonal state in a non-Markovian dephasing environment. The sudden transition from classical to quantum decoherence regime is observed during the dynamics of such kind of Bell diagonal state. Due to the refocusing effect of the overall relative phase, the quantum correlation revives from near zero and then decays again in the subsequent evolution. However, the non-Markovian effect is too weak to revive the classical correlation, which remains constant in the same evolution range. With the implementation of an optical $\sigma_{x}$ operation, the sudden transition from quantum to classical revival regime is obtained and correlation echoes are formed. Our method can be used to control the revival time of correlations, which would be important in quantum memory.

We experimentally investigate the dynamics of classical and quantum correlations of a Bell diagonal state in a non-Markovian dephasing environment. The sudden transition from classical to quantum decoherence regime is observed during the dynamics of such kind of Bell diagonal state. Due to the refocusing effect of the overall relative phase, the quantum correlation revives from near zero and then decays again in the subsequent evolution. However, the non-Markovian effect is too weak to revive the classical correlation, which remains constant in the same evolution range. With the implementation of an optical $\sigma_{x}$ operation, the sudden transition from quantum to classical revival regime is obtained and correlation echoes are formed. Our method can be used to control the revival time of correlations, which would be important in quantum memory.

The dynamics of a linear system embedded in a heat bath environment and subject to non- Gaussian noise is studied. Higher order cumulants in coordinate space are derived and their impact on the dynamics and on asymptotic steady state distributions is analyzed. In the quantum regime non-Gaussian properties are present in the reduced density in coordinate representation which in energy representation exist on a transient time scale only due to symmetry. Within an exactly solvable model our results provide insight into mechanisms of linear detectors as sensors for non- Gaussian noise at high and low temperatures.

The dynamics of a linear system embedded in a heat bath environment and subject to non- Gaussian noise is studied. Higher order cumulants in coordinate space are derived and their impact on the dynamics and on asymptotic steady state distributions is analyzed. In the quantum regime non-Gaussian properties are present in the reduced density in coordinate representation which in energy representation exist on a transient time scale only due to symmetry. Within an exactly solvable model our results provide insight into mechanisms of linear detectors as sensors for non- Gaussian noise at high and low temperatures.

The dynamics of a linear system embedded in a heat bath environment and subject to non- Gaussian noise is studied. Higher order cumulants in coordinate space are derived and their impact on the dynamics and on asymptotic steady state distributions is analyzed. In the quantum regime non-Gaussian properties are present in the reduced density in coordinate representation which in energy representation exist on a transient time scale only due to symmetry. Within an exactly solvable model our results provide insight into mechanisms of linear detectors as sensors for non- Gaussian noise at high and low temperatures.

We present analytical and numerical studies of phase-coherent dynamics of intrinsically localized excitations (breathers) in a system of two weakly coupled nonlinear oscillator chains. We show that there are two qualitatively different dynamical regimes of the coupled breathers, either immovable or slowly-moving: the periodic transverse translation (wandering) of low-amplitude breather between the chains, and the one-chain-localization of high-amplitude breather. These two modes of coupled nonlinear excitations, which involve large number of anharmonic oscillators, can be mapped onto two solutions of a single pendulum equation, detached by a separatrix mode. We also study two-chain breathers, which can be considered as bound states of discrete breathers with different symmetry and center locations in the coupled chains, and bifurcation of the anti-phase two-chain breather into the one-chain one. Delocalizing transition of 1D breather in 2D system of a large number of parallel coupled nonlinear chains is described, in which the breather, initially excited in a given chain, abruptly spreads its vibration energy in the whole 2D system upon decreasing breather frequency or amplitude below the threshold one. The threshold breather frequency is above the cut off phonon frequency in 2D system, and the threshold breather amplitude scales as square root of the inter-chain coupling constant. Delocalizing transition of discrete vibrational breather in 2D and 3D systems of coupled nonlinear chains has an analogy with delocalizing transition for Bose-Einstein condensates in 2D and 3D optical lattices.

We apply random-matrix-theory (RMT) to the analysis of evolution of wavepackets in energy space. We study the crossover from ballistic behavior to saturation, the possibility of having an intermediate diffusive behavior, and the feasibility of strong localization effect. Both theoretical considerations and numerical results are presented. Using quantal-classical correspondence (QCC) considerations we question the validity of the emerging dynamical picture. In particular we claim that the appearance of the intermediate diffusive behavior is possibly an artifact of the RMT strategy.

This work identifies geometric effects on dynamics due to nonadiabatic couplings in Born Oppenheimer systems and provides a systematic method for deriving corrections to mixed quantum-classical methods. Specifically, an exact path integral formulation of the quantum nonadiabatic dynamics of Born Oppenheimer systems is described. Stationary phase approximations to the propagator for full quantum dynamics are derived. It is shown that quantum corrections to mixed quantum classical methods can be obtained through stationary phase approximations to the full quantum dynamics. A rigorous description of the quantum corrections due to electronic nonadiabatic coupling on the nuclear dynamics within the Ehrenfest framework is obtained. The fewest switches surface hopping method is shown to be obtained as a quasiclassical approximation to the dynamics and natural semiclassical extensions to include classically forbidden nonadiabatic transitions are suggested.

We consider the problem of reversing quantum dynamics, with the goal of preserving an initial state's quantum entanglement or classical correlation with a reference system. We exhibit an approximate reversal operation, adapted to the initial density operator and the ``noise'' dynamics to be reversed. We show that its error in preserving either quantum or classical information is no more than twice that of the optimal reversal operation. Applications to quantum algorithms and information transmission are discussed.

The Dirac method is used to analyze the classical and quantum dynamics of a particle constrained on a circle. The method of Lagrange multipliers is scrutinized, in particular in relation to the quantization procedure. Ordering problems are tackled and solved by requiring the hermiticity of some operators. The presence of an additional term in the quantum Hamiltonian is discussed.

Starting from the Schr\"odinger-equation of a composite system, we derive unified dynamics of a classical harmonic system coupled to an arbitrary quantized system. The classical subsystem is described by random phase-space coordinates entangled with the quantized variables of the complementary subsystem. Our semiclassical equation is {\it true} in a sense that its predictions are identical to those of the fully quantized composite dynamics. This exact method applies to a broad class of theories, including e.g. the relativistic quantum-electrodynamics and the electron-fonon dynamics.

We present classical and quantum mechanical descriptions of lattice dynamics, from the atomic to the continuum scale, using atomic scale symmetry modes and their constraint equations. This approach is demonstrated for a one-dimensional chain and a two-dimensional square lattice with a monatomic basis. For the classical description, we find that rigid modes, in addition to the distortional modes found before, are necessary to describe the kinetic energy. The long wavelength limit of the kinetic energy terms expressed in terms of atomic scale modes is shown to be consistent with the continuum theory, and the leading order corrections are obtained. For the quantum mechanical description, we find conjugate momenta for the atomic scale symmetry modes. In direct space, graphical rules for their commutation relations are obtained. Commutation relations in the reciprocal space are also calculated. As an example, phonon modes are analyzed in terms of symmetry modes. We emphasize that the approach based on atomic scale symmetry modes could be useful, for example, for the description of multiscale lattice dynamics and the dynamics near structural phase transition.

Of great recent interest in condensed matter physics are phenomena of coexistence of quantum and classical properties in the same material. Such duality occurs in certain mixed-spin antiferromagnets composed of quantum spin chains interacting through ``auxiliary'' magnetic ions. In this category are linear-chain rare earth nickelates that exhibit a seemingly paradoxical co-existence of long-range magnetic order and one-dimensional gapped quantum spin excitations at low temperatures. In the present paper we propose a unified physical description of these compounds, supported by recent neutron diffraction and inelastic scattering studies. Our basic concept is the effective separation between low-frequency classical and high-frequency quantum spin correlations. This interpretation enables experimental measurements of some previously inaccessible fundamental properties of quantum spin chains, and predicts new exotic magnetic excitations and mechanisms of long-range ordering in complex quantum magnets.

A model is constructed for the confinement of test particles moving on a brane. Within the classical framework of this theory, confining a test particle to the brane eliminates the effects of extra dimensions, rendering them undetectable. However, in the quantized version of the theory, the effects of the gauge fields and extrinsic curvature are pronounced and this might provide a hint for detecting them. As a consequence of confinement the mass of the test particle is shown to be quantized. The condition of stability against small perturbations along extra dimensions is also studied and its relation to dark matter is discussed.

We apply a many-body Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approach to determine the leading quantum corrections to the semiclassical dynamics of the Josephson model, describing interacting bosons able to tunnel between two localized states. The semiclassical dynamics is known to divide between regular oscillations and self-trapped oscillations where the sign of the imbalance remains fixed. In both cases, the WKB wave functions are matched to Airy functions, yielding a modified Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization condition. At the critical energy dividing normal and self-trapped oscillations, the WKB wave functions should instead be matched to parabolic cylinder functions, leading to a quantization formula that is not just the Bohr-Sommerfeld formula, and recovering the known logarithmic quantum break times at this energy. This work thus provides another illustration of the usefulness of the WKB approach in certain many-body problems.

The non-Hermitian quadratic oscillator studied by Swanson is one of the popular $PT$-symmetric model systems. Here a full classical description of its dynamics is derived using recently developed metriplectic flow equations, which combine the classical symplectic flow for Hermitian systems with a dissipative metric flow for the anti-Hermitian part. Closed form expressions for the metric and phase-space trajectories are presented which are found to be periodic in time. Since the Hamiltonian is only quadratic the classical dynamics exactly describes the quantum dynamics of Gaussian wave packets. It is shown that the classical metric and trajectories as well as the quantum wave functions can diverge in finite time even though the $PT$-symmetry is unbroken, i.e., the eigenvalues are purely real.

A Hamilton-Jacobi formulation of the Lyapunov spectrum and KS entropy is developed. It is numerically efficient and reveals a close relation between the KS invariant and the classical action. This formulation is extended to the quantum domain using the Madelung-Bohm orbits associated with the Schroedinger equation. The resulting quantum KS invariant for a given orbit equals the mean decay rate of the probability density along the orbit, while its ensemble average measures the mean growth rate of configuration-space information for the quantum system.

Computations of quantum corrections to the CMB spectrum and to scalar field dynamics during inflation very often take advantage of the "semi-classical" approach, where the metric fluctuations are simply omitted. On the other hand, a complete computation ought to take into account that the matter field perturbation and scalar metric perturbation together constitute a single physical degree of freedom. The question then naturally arises, in which sense the semi-classical approach is an approximation to the complete calculation, and whether there are specific limits where this is also a good approximation. We consider the quantum corrected dynamics of interacting scalar fields in an expanding inflationary background. We demonstrate this by explicitly computing the leading quantum radiative corrections to the evolution equation of the mean field ("condensate") and the Friedmann equations taking into account scalar perturbations of both the matter field and the metric, and when omitting the latter. We find that the two agree in the limit H < < M_pl , but one is not a limit of the other. We also find that in simple models of inflation, H/M_pl is not small enough that the two approaches can be said to agree. By direct comparison, we demonstrate how to interpret the "semi-classical" approach often employed in more complex computations as a well-defined approximation, and quantify its validity.

Computations of quantum corrections to the CMB spectrum and to scalar field dynamics during inflation very often take advantage of the "semi-classical" approach, where the metric fluctuations are simply omitted. On the other hand, a complete computation ought to take into account that the matter field perturbation and scalar metric perturbation together constitute a single physical degree of freedom. The question then naturally arises, in which sense the semi-classical approach is an approximation to the complete calculation, and whether there are specific limits where this is also a good approximation. We consider the quantum corrected dynamics of interacting scalar fields in an expanding inflationary background. We demonstrate this by explicitly computing the leading quantum radiative corrections to the evolution equation of the mean field ("condensate") and the Friedmann equations taking into account scalar perturbations of both the matter field and the metric, and when omitting the latter. We find that the two agree in the limit H < < M_pl , but one is not a limit of the other. We also find that in simple models of inflation, H/M_pl is not small enough that the two approaches can be said to agree. By direct comparison, we demonstrate how to interpret the "semi-classical" approach often employed in more complex computations as a well-defined approximation, and quantify its validity.

We study classical Hamiltonian systems in which the intrinsic proper time evolution parameter is related through a probability distribution to the physical time, which is assumed to be discrete. - This is motivated by the ``timeless'' reparametrization invariant model of a relativistic particle with two compactified extradimensions. In this example, discrete physical time is constructed based on quasi-local observables. - Generally, employing the path-integral formulation of classical mechanics developed by Gozzi et al., we show that these deterministic classical systems can be naturally described as unitary quantum mechanical models. The emergent quantum Hamiltonian is derived from the underlying classical one. It is closely related to the Liouville operator. We demonstrate in several examples the necessity of regularization, in order to arrive at quantum models with bounded spectrum and stable groundstate.

We study classical Hamiltonian systems in which the intrinsic proper time evolution parameter is related through a probability distribution to the physical time, which is assumed to be discrete. - This is motivated by the ``timeless'' reparametrization invariant model of a relativistic particle with two compactified extradimensions. In this example, discrete physical time is constructed based on quasi-local observables. - Generally, employing the path-integral formulation of classical mechanics developed by Gozzi et al., we show that these deterministic classical systems can be naturally described as unitary quantum mechanical models. The emergent quantum Hamiltonian is derived from the underlying classical one. It is closely related to the Liouville operator. We demonstrate in several examples the necessity of regularization, in order to arrive at quantum models with bounded spectrum and stable groundstate.

We study classical Hamiltonian systems in which the intrinsic proper time evolution parameter is related through a probability distribution to the physical time, which is assumed to be discrete. - This is motivated by the ``timeless'' reparametrization invariant model of a relativistic particle with two compactified extradimensions. In this example, discrete physical time is constructed based on quasi-local observables. - Generally, employing the path-integral formulation of classical mechanics developed by Gozzi et al., we show that these deterministic classical systems can be naturally described as unitary quantum mechanical models. The emergent quantum Hamiltonian is derived from the underlying classical one. It is closely related to the Liouville operator. We demonstrate in several examples the necessity of regularization, in order to arrive at quantum models with bounded spectrum and stable groundstate.

We discuss classical and quantum computations in terms of corresponding Hamiltonian dynamics. This allows us to introduce quantum computations which involve parallel processing of both: the data and programme instructions. Using mixed quantum-classical dynamics we look for a full cost of computations on quantum computers with classical terminals.

The dissociation of methane on transition metals is an important reaction in catalysis. It is the rate limiting step in steam reforming to produce syngas. Molecular beam experiments have shown that the energy in the internal vibrations are about as effective as the translational energy in inducing dissociation. The published wave packet simulations on the methane dissociation reaction on transition metals have treated the methane molecule always as a diatomic up to now. Besides the C-H bond and molecule surface distance, a combination of other coordinates were included, like (multiple) rotations and some lattice motion. None of them have looked at the role of the internal vibrations. We were not able yet to simulate the dissociation including all internal vibrations. Instead we simulated the scattering of methane in fixed orientations, for which all internal vibrations can be included, and used the results to deduce consequences for the dissociation. Furthermore we studied the isotope effect, and the role of vibrational excitations. We ended with classical trajectory calculations of the rotational vibrational scattering of a non-rigid methane molecule from a Ni(111) surface. Energy dissipation and scattering angles have been studied as a function of the translational kinetic energy, the incident angle, the (rotational) nozzle temperature, and the surface temperature.

The dynamics of a quantum nonlinear oscillator is studied in terms of its quasi-flow, a dynamical mapping of the classical phase plane that represents the time-evolution of the quantum observables. Explicit expressions are derived for the deformation of the classical flow by the quantum nonlinearity in the semiclassical limit. The breakdown of the classical trajectories under the quantum nonlinear dynamics is quantified by the mismatch of the quasi-flow carried by different observables. It is shown that the failure of classical realism can give rise to a dynamical violation of Bell's inequalities.

In the study of open quantum systems modeled by a unitary evolution of a bipartite Hilbert space, we address the question of which parts of the environment can be said to have a "classical action" on the system, in the sense of acting as a classical stochastic process. Our method relies on the definition of the Environment Algebra, a relevant von Neumann algebra of the environment. With this algebra we define the classical parts of the environment and prove a decomposition between a maximal classical part and a quantum part. Then we investigate what other information can be obtained via this algebra, which leads us to define a more pertinent algebra: the Environment Action Algebra. This second algebra is linked to the minimal Stinespring representations induced by the unitary evolution on the system. Finally in finite dimension we give a characterization of both algebras in terms of the spectrum of a certain completely positive map acting on the states of the environment.

We investigate deviations from the plane wave model in the interaction of charged particles with strong electromagnetic fields. A general result is that integrability of the dynamics is lost when going from lightlike to timelike or spacelike field dependence. For a special scenario in the classical regime we show how the radiation spectrum in the spacelike (undulator) case becomes well-approximated by the plane wave model in the high energy limit, despite the two systems being Lorentz inequivalent. In the quantum problem, there is no analogue of the WKB-exact Volkov solution. Nevertheless, WKB and uniform-WKB approaches give good approximations in all cases considered. Other approaches that reduce the underlying differential equations from second to first order are found to miss the correct physics for situations corresponding to barrier transmission and wide-angle scattering.

We reply to a comment on `Semiclassical dynamics of a spin-1/2 in an arbitrary magnetic field'.

The classical Landau-Lifshitz equation with damping term has been derived from the time evolution of a quantum mechanical wave function under the assumption of a non-hermitian Hamilton operator. Further, the trajectory of a classical spin $\mathrm{S}$ has been compared with the expectation value of the spin operator $\mathrm{\hat{S}}$. A good agreement between classical and quantum mechanical trajectories can be found for Hamiltonians linear in $\mathrm{\hat{S}}$ respectively $\mathrm{S}$. Quadratic or higher order terms in the Hamiltonian result in a disagreement.

We study a model for a two-mode atomic-molecular Bose--Einstein condensate. Starting with a classical analysis we determine the phase space fixed points of the system. It is found that bifurcations of the fixed points naturally separate the coupling parameter space into four regions. The different regions give rise to qualitatively different dynamics. We then show that this classification holds true for the quantum dynamics.

We propose a refined matrix product state representation for many-body quantum states that are invariant under SU(2) transformations, and indicate how to extend the time-evolving block decimation (TEBD) algorithm in order to simulate time evolution in an SU(2) invariant system. The resulting algorithm is tested in a critical quantum spin chain and shown to be significantly more efficient than the standard TEBD.

This article reviews the role of hidden symmetries of dynamics in the study of physical systems, from the basic concepts of symmetries in phase space to the forefront of current research. Such symmetries emerge naturally in the description of physical systems as varied as non-relativistic, relativistic, with or without gravity, classical or quantum, and are related to the existence of conserved quantities of the dynamics and integrability. In recent years their study has grown intensively, due to the discovery of non-trivial examples that apply to different types of theories and different numbers of dimensions. Applications encompass the study of integrable systems such as spinning tops, the Calogero model, systems described by the Lax equation, the physics of higher dimensional black holes, the Dirac equation, supergravity with and without fluxes, providing a tool to probe the dynamics of non-linear systems.

Entanglement sudden death in spatially separated two-mode Gaussian states coupled to local thermal and squeezed thermal baths is studied by mapping the problem to that of the quantum-to-classical transition. Using Simon's criterion concerning the characterisation of classicality in Gaussian states, the time to ESD is calculated by analysing the covariance matrices of the system. The results for the two-mode system at T=0 and T>0 for the two types of bath states are generalised to $n$-modes, and are shown to be similar in nature to the results for the general discrete $n$-qubit system.

We obtain the complete quantum Seiberg-Witten effective action for N=2 supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory from the classical M-fivebrane equations of motion with N threebranes moving in its worldvolume.

We show that in the few-excitation regime the classical and quantum time-evolution of the inhomogeneous Dicke model for N two-level systems coupled to a single boson mode agree for N>>1. In the presence of a single excitation only, the leading term in an 1/N-expansion of the classical equations of motion reproduces the result of the Schroedinger equation. For a small number of excitations, the numerical solutions of the classical and quantum problems become equal for N sufficiently large. By solving the Schroedinger equation exactly for two excitations and a particular inhomogeneity we obtain 1/N-corrections which lead to a significant difference between the classical and quantum solutions at a new time scale which we identify as an Ehrenferst time, given by tau_E=sqrt{N}, where sqrt{} is an effective coupling strength between the two-level systems and the boson.

Non-equilibrium dynamics of the Ising model is a classical stochastic process whereas quantum mechanics has no stochastic elements in the classical sense. Nevertheless, it has been known that there exists a close formal relationship between these two processes. We reformulate this relationship and use it to compare the efficiency of simulated annealing that uses classical stochastic processes and quantum annealing to solve combinatorial optimization problems. It is shown that classical dynamics can be efficiently simulated by quantum-mechanical processes whereas the converse is not necessarily true. This may imply that quantum annealing may be regarded as a more powerful tool than simulated annealing for optimization problems.

We present two versions of the Egorov theorem for orbifolds. The first one is a straightforward extension of the classical theorem for smooth manifolds. The second one considers an orbifold as a singular manifold, the orbit space of a Lie group action, and deals with the corresponding objects in noncommutative geometry.

An equivalence between the $\mathrm{Schr\ddot{o}dinger}$ dynamics of a quantum system with a finite number of basis states and a classical dynamics is presented. The equivalence is an isomorphism that connects in univocal way both dynamical systems. We treat the particular case of neutral kaons and found a class of electric networks uniquely related to the kaon system finding the complete map between the matrix elements of the effective Hamiltonian of kaons and those elements of the classical dynamics of the networks. As a consequence, the relevant $\epsilon$ parameter that measures CP violation in the kaon system is completely determined in terms of network parameters.

The Bohigas--Giannoni--Schmit conjecture stating that the statistical spectral properties of systems which are chaotic in their classical limit coincide with random matrix theory is proved. For this purpose a new semiclassical field theory for individual chaotic systems is constructed in the framework of the non--linear $\sigma$-model. The low lying modes are shown to be associated with the Perron--Frobenius spectrum of the underlying irreversible classical dynamics. It is shown that the existence of a gap in the Perron-Frobenius spectrum results in a RMT behavior. Moreover, our formalism offers a way of calculating system specific corrections beyond RMT.

The transport properties of exciton-polaritons are studied with allowance for their polarization. Both classical multiple scattering effects and quantum effects such as weak localization are taken into account in the framework of a generalized kinetic equation. The longitudinal-transverse (TE-TM) splitting of polariton states which plays role analogous to the spin-orbit splitting in electron systems is taken into account. The developed formalism is applied to calculate the particle and spin diffusion coefficients of exciton-polaritons, spin relaxation rates and the polarization conversion efficiency under the conditions of the optical spin Hall effect. In contrast to the electron systems, strong spin splitting does not lead to the antilocalization behavior of the particle diffusion coefficient, while quantum corrections to spin diffusion and polarization conversion can be both negative and positive depending on the spin splitting value.

The Liouville equation differs from the von Neumann equation 'only' by a characteristic superoperator. We demonstrate this for Hamiltonian dynamics, in general, and for the Jaynes-Cummings model, in particular. -- Employing superspace (instead of Hilbert space), we describe time evolution of density matrices in terms of path integrals which are formally identical for quantum and classical mechanics. They only differ by the interaction contributing to the action. This allows to import tools developed for Feynman path integrals, in order to deal with superoperators instead of quantum mechanical commutators in real time evolution. Perturbation theory is derived. Besides applications in classical statistical physics, the "classical path integral" and the parallel study of classical and quantum evolution indicate new aspects of (dynamically assisted) entanglement (generation). Our findings suggest to distinguish 'intra'- from 'inter-space' entanglement.

We explore an instantaneous decoherence correction (IDC) approach for the decoherence and energy relaxation in the quantum-classical dynamics of charge transport in organic semiconducting crystals. These effects, originating from environmental fluctuations, are essential ingredients of the carrier dynamics. The IDC is carried out by measurement-like operations in the adiabatic representation. While decoherence is inherent in the IDC, energy relaxation is taken into account by considering the detailed balance through the introduction of energy-dependent reweighing factors, which could be either Boltzmann (IDC-BM) or Miller-Abrahams (IDC-MA) type. For a non-diagonal electron-phonon coupling model, it is shown that the IDC tends to enhance diffusion while energy relaxation weakens this enhancement. As expected, both the IDC-BM and IDC-MA achieve a near-equilibrium distribution at finite temperatures in the diffusion process, while the Ehrenfest dynamics renders system tending to infinite temperature limit. The resulting energy relaxation times with the two kinds of factors lie in different regimes and exhibit different dependence on temperature, decoherence time and electron-phonon coupling strength, due to different dominant relaxation process.

We consider a charged particle moving in the plane subject to electromagnetic potentials with non-vanishing radial limits. We analyse the classical and the quantum dynamics for large time in the case the angular part of the (limiting) Lorentz force (defined for velocities that are purely radial) has a finite number of zeros at fixed energy. Any such zero defines a channel, and to the "stable" ones we associate quantum wave operators. Their completeness is studied in the case of zero as well as nonzero magnetic flux. In the latter case one needs possibly to incorporate a channel of spiraling states. These states are similar to those studied recently in the sign-definite case in \cite {CHS}.

The dynamics of systems composed of a classical sector plus a quantum sector is studied. We show that, even in the simplest cases, (i) the existence of a consistent canonical description for such mixed systems is incompatible with very basic requirements related to the time evolution of the two sectors when they are decoupled. (ii) The classical sector cannot inherit quantum fluctuations from the quantum sector. And, (iii) a coupling among the two sectors is incompatible with the requirement of physical positivity of the theory, i.e., there would be positive observables with a non positive expectation value.

We observe that a wide class of higher-derivative systems admits a bounded integral of motion that ensures the classical stability of dynamics, while the canonical energy is unbounded. We use the concept of a Lagrange anchor to demonstrate that the bounded integral of motion is connected with the time-translation invariance. A procedure is suggested for switching on interactions in free higher-derivative systems without breaking their stability. We also demonstrate the quantization technique that keeps the higher-derivative dynamics stable at quantum level. The general construction is illustrated by the examples of the Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator, higher-derivative scalar field model, and the Podolsky electrodynamics. For all these models, the positive integrals of motion are explicitly constructed and the interactions are included such that keep the system stable.

We present a detailed review of the topics listed in the title, in particular using recent results of the authors.

Here we brie�y review parts of classical dynamics that we will need lateron; symplectic invariance, canonical transformations, and stability of Hamiltonian �ows. If your eventual destination are applications such as chaos in quantumand/or semiconductor systems, read this chapter. If you work in neuroscience or �uid dynamics, skip this chapter, continue reading with the billiard dynamics of chapter 8 which requires no incantations of symplectic pairs or loxodromic quartets.

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 H\'enon-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.