Loschmidt echo decay from local boundary perturbations

Abstract

We investigate the sensitivity of the time evolution of semiclassical wave packets in two-dimensional chaotic billiards with respect to local perturbations of their boundaries. For this purpose, we address, analytically and numerically, the time decay of the Loschmidt echo (LE). We find the LE to decay exponentially in time, with the rate equal to the classical escape rate from an open billiard obtained from the original one by removing the perturbation-affected region of its boundary. Finally, we propose a principal scheme for the experimental observation of the LE decay.