Recurrence properties of quantum observables in wave packet dynamics

We investigate the recurrence properties of the time series of quantum mechanical expectation values, in terms of two representative models for a single-mode radiation field interacting with a nonlinear medium. From recurrence-time distributions, return maps and recurrence plots, we conclude that the dynamics of appropriate observables pertaining to the field can vary from quasiperiodicity to hyperbolicity, depending on the extent of the nonlinearity and of the departure from coherence of the initial state of the field. We establish that, in a simple bipartite model in which the field is effectively an open quantum system, a decaying exponential recurrence-time distribution, characteristic of a hyperbolic dynamical system, is associated with chaotic temporal evolution as characterized by a positive Liapunov exponent.