Many-body adiabatic passage: Quantum detours around chaos

We study the many-body dynamics of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in the presence of on-site interactions. In the classical mean-field limit, explored in Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 121}, 250405 (2018), interaction-induced chaos leads to the breakdown of adiabaticity under the quasi-static variation of the parameters, thus producing {\em low} sweep rate boundaries on efficient population transfer. We show that for the corresponding many-body system, alternative quantum pathways from the initial to the target state, open up at even slower sweep rates. These quantum detours avoid the chaotic classical path and hence allow a robust and efficient population transfer.