Semiclassical quantization of the scattering from a classically chaotic repellor

Abstract
The scattering of a point particle from three hard discs in a plane is studied in the semiclassical approximation, using the Gutzwiller trace formula. Using a previously introduced coding of the classical dynamics, the needed summation over the classical periodic orbits is performed. The trace function is then given in terms of Ruelle zeta functions. A semiclassical limit upper bound is obtained on the lifetimes of the scattering resonances. This bound is larger than the classical lifetime when the classical repellor is chaotic but coincides with it when the repellor is periodic. We conclude that classical chaos dramatically influences the lifetimes of the scattering resonances. Our upper bound for the resonance lifetime is compared with the results of numerical calculation of the full quantum dynamics. The distribution of the imaginary parts of the complex wave numbers of the resonances is also calculated.

This publication has 42 references indexed in Scilit: