1,825 research outputs found
First clear evidence of quantum chaos in the bound states of an atomic nucleus
We study the spectral fluctuations of the Pb nucleus using the
complete experimental spectrum of 151 states up to excitation energies of
MeV recently identified at the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratorium at Garching,
Germany. For natural parity states the results are very close to the
predictions of Random Matrix Theory (RMT) for the nearest-neighbor spacing
distribution. A quantitative estimate of the agreement is given by the Brody
parameter , which takes the value for regular systems and
for chaotic systems. We obtain which
is, to our knowledge, the closest value to chaos ever observed in experimental
bound states of nuclei. By contrast, the results for unnatural parity states
are far from RMT behavior. We interpret these results as a consequence of the
strength of the residual interaction in Pb, which, according to
experimental data, is much stronger for natural than for unnatural parity
states. In addition our results show that chaotic and non-chaotic nuclear
states coexist in the same energy region of the spectrum.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
Theoretical derivation of 1/f noise in quantum chaos
It was recently conjectured that 1/f noise is a fundamental characteristic of
spectral fluctuations in chaotic quantum systems. This conjecture is based on
the behavior of the power spectrum of the excitation energy fluctuations, which
is different for chaotic and integrable systems. Using random matrix theory we
derive theoretical expressions that explain the power spectrum behavior at all
frequencies. These expressions reproduce to a good approximation the power laws
of type 1/f (1/f^2) characteristics of chaotic (integrable) systems, observed
in almost the whole frequency domain. Although we use random matrix theory to
derive these results, they are also valid for semiclassical systems.Comment: 5 pages (Latex), 3 figure
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