Internal and External Resonances of Dielectric Disks

Circular microresonators (microdisks) are micron sized dielectric disks embedded in a material of lower refractive index. They possess modes with complex eigenvalues (resonances) which are solutions of analytically given transcendental equations. The behavior of such eigenvalues in the small opening limit, i.e. when the refractive index of the cavity goes to infinity, is analysed. This analysis allows one to clearly distinguish between internal (Feshbach) and external (shape) resonant modes for both TM and TE polarizations. This is especially important for TE polarization for which internal and external resonances can be found in the same region of the complex wavenumber plane. It is also shown that for both polarizations, the internal as well as external resonances can be classified by well defined azimuthal and radial modal indices.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, pdflate

Pulsar Magnetospheric Emission Mapping: Images and Implications of Polar-Cap Weather

The beautiful sequences of ``drifting'' subpulses observed in some radio pulsars have been regarded as among the most salient and potentially instructive characteristics of their emission, not least because they have appeared to represent a system of subbeams in motion within the emission zone of the star. Numerous studies of these ``drift'' sequences have been published, and a model of their generation and motion articulated long ago by Ruderman & Sutherland (1975); but efforts thus far have failed to establish an illuminating connection between the drift phemomenon and the actual sites of radio emission. Through a detailed analysis of a nearly coherent sequence of ``drifting'' pulses from pulsar B0943+10, we have in fact identified a system of subbeams circulating around the magnetic axis of the star. A mapping technique, involving a ``cartographic'' transform and its inverse, permits us to study the character of the polar-cap emission ``map'' and then to confirm that it, in turn, represents the observed pulse sequence. On this basis, we have been able to trace the physical origin of the ``drifting-subpulse'' emission to a stably rotating and remarkably organized configuration of emission columns, in turn traceable possibly to the magnetic polar-cap ``gap'' region envisioned by some theories.Comment: latex with five eps figure

Spectral statistics in chaotic systems with a point interaction

We consider quantum systems with a chaotic classical limit that are perturbed by a point-like scatterer. The spectral form factor K(tau) for these systems is evaluated semiclassically in terms of periodic and diffractive orbits. It is shown for order tau^2 and tau^3 that off-diagonal contributions to the form factor which involve diffractive orbits cancel exactly the diagonal contributions from diffractive orbits, implying that the perturbation by the scatterer does not change the spectral statistic. We further show that parametric spectral statistics for these systems are universal for small changes of the strength of the scatterer.Comment: LaTeX, 21 pages, 7 figures, small corrections, new references adde

Universal spectral statistics in Wigner-Dyson, chiral and Andreev star graphs II: semiclassical approach

A semiclassical approach to the universal ergodic spectral statistics in quantum star graphs is presented for all known ten symmetry classes of quantum systems. The approach is based on periodic orbit theory, the exact semiclassical trace formula for star graphs and on diagrammatic techniques. The appropriate spectral form factors are calculated upto one order beyond the diagonal and self-dual approximations. The results are in accordance with the corresponding random-matrix theories which supports a properly generalized Bohigas-Giannoni-Schmit conjecture.Comment: 15 Page

On the Accuracy of the Semiclassical Trace Formula

The semiclassical trace formula provides the basic construction from which one derives the semiclassical approximation for the spectrum of quantum systems which are chaotic in the classical limit. When the dimensionality of the system increases, the mean level spacing decreases as $\hbar^d$, while the semiclassical approximation is commonly believed to provide an accuracy of order $\hbar^2$, independently of d. If this were true, the semiclassical trace formula would be limited to systems in d <= 2 only. In the present work we set about to define proper measures of the semiclassical spectral accuracy, and to propose theoretical and numerical evidence to the effect that the semiclassical accuracy, measured in units of the mean level spacing, depends only weakly (if at all) on the dimensionality. Detailed and thorough numerical tests were performed for the Sinai billiard in 2 and 3 dimensions, substantiating the theoretical arguments.Comment: LaTeX, 31 pages, 14 figures, final version (minor changes

Geometrical theory of diffraction and spectral statistics

We investigate the influence of diffraction on the statistics of energy levels in quantum systems with a chaotic classical limit. By applying the geometrical theory of diffraction we show that diffraction on singularities of the potential can lead to modifications in semiclassical approximations for spectral statistics that persist in the semiclassical limit $\hbar \to 0$. This result is obtained by deriving a classical sum rule for trajectories that connect two points in coordinate space.Comment: 14 pages, no figure, to appear in J. Phys.

Periodic-Orbit Bifurcations and Superdeformed Shell Structure

We have derived a semiclassical trace formula for the level density of the three-dimensional spheroidal cavity. To overcome the divergences occurring at bifurcations and in the spherical limit, the trace integrals over the action-angle variables were performed using an improved stationary phase method. The resulting semiclassical level density oscillations and shell-correction energies are in good agreement with quantum-mechanical results. We find that the bifurcations of some dominant short periodic orbits lead to an enhancement of the shell structure for "superdeformed" shapes related to those known from atomic nuclei.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figure

Effect of pitchfork bifurcations on the spectral statistics of Hamiltonian systems

We present a quantitative semiclassical treatment of the effects of bifurcations on the spectral rigidity and the spectral form factor of a Hamiltonian quantum system defined by two coupled quartic oscillators, which on the classical level exhibits mixed phase space dynamics. We show that the signature of a pitchfork bifurcation is two-fold: Beside the known effect of an enhanced periodic orbit contribution due to its peculiar $\hbar$-dependence at the bifurcation, we demonstrate that the orbit pair born {\em at} the bifurcation gives rise to distinct deviations from universality slightly {\em above} the bifurcation. This requires a semiclassical treatment beyond the so-called diagonal approximation. Our semiclassical predictions for both the coarse-grained density of states and the spectral rigidity, are in excellent agreement with corresponding quantum-mechanical results.Comment: LaTex, 25 pp., 14 Figures (26 *.eps files); final version 3, to be published in Journal of Physics

Nonperiodic Orbit Sums in Weyl's Expansion for Billiards

Weyl's expansion for the asymptotic mode density of billiards consists of the area, length, curvature and corner terms. The area term has been associated with the so-called zero-length orbits. Here closed nonperiodic paths corresponding to the length and corner terms are constructed.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Quantal Consequences of Perturbations Which Destroy Structurally Unstable Orbits in Chaotic Billiards

Non-generic contributions to the quantal level-density from parallel segments in billiards are investigated. These contributions are due to the existence of marginally stable families of periodic orbits, which are structurally unstable, in the sense that small perturbations, such as a slight tilt of one of the segments, destroy them completely. We investigate the effects of such perturbation on the corresponding quantum spectra, and demonstrate them for the stadium billiard