Measurement and feedback-driven adaptive dynamics in the classical and quantum kicked top

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 21 Apr 2026] Measurement and feedback-driven adaptive dynamics in the classical and quantum kicked top Mahaveer Prasad, Ahana Chakraborty, Thomas Iadecola, Manas Kulkarni, J. H. Pixley, Sriram Ganeshan, Justin H. Wilson In classical dynamical systems, stochastic feedback can stabilize otherwise unstable periodic orbits, giving rise to distinct controlled and uncontrolled phases as the rate of control application is varied. In this work, we apply these control protocols in classical, semiclassical, and quantum regimes to the kicked top, a paradigmatic model of quantum chaos. The quantum kicked top, modeled as the dynamics of a spin-S object, naturally interpolates between these regimes with the spin size S acting as an effective Planck constant. We show that the dynamics of the kicked top in classical, semiclassical, and fully quantum limits can all be controlled using stochastic feedback protocols. Comparing the full quantum dynamics to a truncated Wigner approximation that captures quantum noise but neglects interference beyond the Ehrenfest time, we find that low-moment observables are largely accounted for semiclassically, while the remaining discrepancy in higher moments is consistent with contributions from interference and possibly nonlinearities in rare trajectories that explore the compact phase space. We also find rapid purification in the numerics studied for all rates of control considered, suggesting that control quenches the top's ability to encode a qubit of quantum information even in the uncontrolled phase. Comments: 22 pages, 9+3 figures Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD) Cite as: arXiv:2604.19874 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2604.19874v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.19874 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Justin Wilson [view email] [v1] Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:00:06 UTC (9,024 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.stat-mech nlin nlin.CD References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)