Quantum mechanics of rapidly and periodically driven systems

Abstract

This review deals with the dynamics of quantum systems that are subject to high frequency external perturbations. Though the problem may look hopelessly time-dependent, and poised on the extreme opposite side of adiabaticity, there exists a 'Kapitza Window' over which the dynamics can be treated in terms of effective time-independent Hamiltonians. The consequent results are important in the context of atomic traps as well as quantum optic properties of atoms in intense and high-frequency electromagnetic fields.