Quantum parametric resonance of a dissipative oscillator: fading and persistent memory in the long-time evolution

The evolution of a quantum oscillator, with periodically varying frequency and damping, is studied in the two cases of parametric resonance (PR) producing a limited, or unlimited stretching of the wave function. The different asymptotic behaviors of the energy distribution, show the non-trivial interplay between PR and the initial quantum state. In the first case, the oscillator’s mean energy tends asymptotically to a fully classical value, independently of the initial state, with vanishing relative quantum fluctuations. In the second case, the memory of the initial state persists over arbitrary long time scales, both in the mean value and in the large quantum fluctuations of the energy.