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Physical Review A

Physical and numerical experiments on the wave mechanics of classically chaotic systems

S. Sridhar, Eric J. Heller

Published Aug 1, 1992• 88 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study chaotic quantum billiards using both microwave cavities and numerical simulations. For the same geometry, viz., a Sinai billiard, agreement to remarkable precision is found for both the eigenvalue magnitudes and the spatial detail of the eigenfunctions. The association of the eigenfunctions with classical periodic orbits is demonstrated, and scarred states are identified. Desymmetrizing the Sinai billiard by slightly moving the central disk is shown to lead to strong localization of the eigenfunction. The calculated eigenstates of the symmetric billiard show an even- and odd-parity pair whose linear combination gives the localized state.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.46.r1728

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We study chaotic quantum billiards using both microwave cavities and numerical simulations. For the same geometry, viz., a Sinai billiard, agreement to remarkable precision is found for both the eigenvalue magnitudes and the spatial detail of the eigenfunctions. The association of the eigenfunctions with classical periodic orbits is demonstrated, and scarred states are identified. Desymmetrizing the Sinai billiard by slightly moving the central disk is shown to lead to strong localization of the eigenfunction. The calculated eigenstates of the symmetric billiard show an even- and odd-parity pair whose linear combination gives the localized state.
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We study quantum localization phenomena in chaotic systems with a parameter. The parametric motion of energy levels proceeds without crossing any other and the defined avoided crossings quantify the interaction between states. We propose the elimination of avoided crossings as the natural mechanism to uncover localized structures. We describe an efficient method for the elimination of avoided crossings in chaotic billiards and apply it to the stadium billiard. We find many scars of short periodic orbits revealing the skeleton on which quantum mechanics is built. Moreover, we have observed strong interaction between similar localized structures.
The eigenfrequencies of resonance cavities shaped as stadium or Sinai billiards are determined by microwave absorption. In the applied frequency range 0--18.74 GHz the used cavities can be considered as two dimensional. For this case quantum-mechanical and electromagnetic boundary conditions are equivalent, and the resonance spectrum of the cavity is, if properly normalized, identical with the quantum-mechanical eigenvalue spectrum. Spectra, containing up to a thousand eigenfrequencies, are obtained within minutes. Statistical properties of the spectra as well as their correlation with classical periodic orbits are discussed.
By using the representation of SU(2) coherent states,we construct the wave functions related to the classical periodic orbits in the 2D rectangular billiard.The relation between the classical periodic orbits and the quantum wave functions provide a more physical description of a phenomenon than the true eigenstates in mesoscopic systems.Furthermore,by using the periodic orbit theory,we calculate the Fourier transform ρ(L) of the quantum spectra of the two-dimensional rectangular billiard system.The resulting of the peaks in plots of |ρN(L)|2 versus L are compared to the lengths of the classical periodic orbits of the particle moving in the 2D rectangular cavity.The agreement of the peaks between |ρN(L)|2 and the length of the classical periodic orbit suggests the correspondence of quantum mechanics and classical mechanics.
We describe a wave-mechanical implementation of classically chaotic n-disk scattering based on thin two-dimensional microwave cavities. Two-, three-, and four-disk scatterings are investigated in detail. The experiments, which are able to probe the stationary Green's function of the system, yield both frequencies and widths of the low-lying quantum resonances. The observed spectra are found to be in good agreement with calculations based on semiclassical periodic orbit theory. Wave-vector autocorrelation functions are analyzed for various scattering geometries, the small wave-vector behavior allowing one to extract the escape rate from the quantum repeller. Quantitative agreement is found with the value predicted from classical scattering theory. For intermediate energies, nonuniversal oscillations are detected in the autocorrelation function, reflecting the presence of periodic orbits.