General approach to the quantum kicked particle in a magnetic field: Quantum-antiresonance transition

The quantum kicked particle in a magnetic field is studied in a weak-chaos regime under realistic conditions, i.e., for general values of the conserved coordinate xc of the cyclotron orbit center. The system exhibits spectral structures [“Hofstadter butterflies” (HBs)] and quantum diffusion depending sensitively on xc. Most significant changes take place when xc approaches the value at which quantum antiresonance (exactly periodic recurrences) can occur: the HB essentially “doubles” and the quantum-diffusion coefficient D(xc) is strongly reduced. An explanation of these phenomena, including an approximate formula for D(xc) in a class of wave packets, is given on the basis of an effective Hamiltonian which is derived as a power expansion in a small parameter. The global quantum diffusion of a two-dimensional wave packet for all xc is briefly considered.