Quantum entanglement and fixed point Hopf bifurcation

We present the qualitative differences in the phase transitions of the mono-mode Dicke model in its integrable and chaotic versions. These qualitative differences are shown to be connected to the degree of entanglement of the ground state correlations as measured by the linear entropy. We show that a first order phase transition occurs in the integrable case whereas a second order in the chaotic one. This difference is also reflected in the classical limit: for the integrable case the stable fixed point in phase space undergoes a Hopf type whereas the second one a pitchfork type bifurcation. The calculation of the atomic Wigner functions of the ground state follows the same trends. Moreover, strong correlations are evidenced by its negative parts. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.