Semiclassical Theory of Chaotic Quantum Transport

We present a refined semiclassical approach to the Landauer conductance and Kubo conductivity of clean chaotic mesoscopic systems. We demonstrate for systems with uniformly hyperbolic dynamics that including off-diagonal contributions to double sums over classical paths gives a weak-localization correction in quantitative agreement with results from random matrix theory. We further discuss the magnetic field dependence. This semiclassical treatment accounts for current conservation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Semiclassical universality of parametric spectral correlations

We consider quantum systems with a chaotic classical limit that depend on an external parameter, and study correlations between the spectra at different parameter values. In particular, we consider the parametric spectral form factor $K(\tau,x)$ which depends on a scaled parameter difference $x$. For parameter variations that do not change the symmetry of the system we show by using semiclassical periodic orbit expansions that the small $\tau$ expansion of the form factor agrees with Random Matrix Theory for systems with and without time reversal symmetry.Comment: 18 pages, no figure

Critical review of Ames Life Science participation in Spacelab Mission Development Test 3: The SMD 3 management study

A management study was conducted to specify activities and problems encountered during the development of procedures for documentation and crew training on experiments, as well as during the design, integration, and delivery of a life sciences experiment payload to Johnson Space Center for a 7 day simulation of a Spacelab mission. Conclusions and recommendations to project management for current and future Ames' life sciences projects are included. Broader issues relevant to the conduct of future scientific missions under the constraints imposed by the environment of space are also addressed

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

Periodic orbit bifurcations and scattering time delay fluctuations

We study fluctuations of the Wigner time delay for open (scattering) systems which exhibit mixed dynamics in the classical limit. It is shown that in the semiclassical limit the time delay fluctuations have a distribution that differs markedly from those which describe fully chaotic (or strongly disordered) systems: their moments have a power law dependence on a semiclassical parameter, with exponents that are rational fractions. These exponents are obtained from bifurcating periodic orbits trapped in the system. They are universal in situations where sufficiently long orbits contribute. We illustrate the influence of bifurcations on the time delay numerically using an open quantum map.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, contribution to QMC200

The Dirichlet-to-Robin Transform

A simple transformation converts a solution of a partial differential equation with a Dirichlet boundary condition to a function satisfying a Robin (generalized Neumann) condition. In the simplest cases this observation enables the exact construction of the Green functions for the wave, heat, and Schrodinger problems with a Robin boundary condition. The resulting physical picture is that the field can exchange energy with the boundary, and a delayed reflection from the boundary results. In more general situations the method allows at least approximate and local construction of the appropriate reflected solutions, and hence a "classical path" analysis of the Green functions and the associated spectral information. By this method we solve the wave equation on an interval with one Robin and one Dirichlet endpoint, and thence derive several variants of a Gutzwiller-type expansion for the density of eigenvalues. The variants are consistent except for an interesting subtlety of distributional convergence that affects only the neighborhood of zero in the frequency variable.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures; RevTe

Planning and managing future space facility projects

To learn how ground-based personnel of a space project plan and organize their work and how such planning and organizing relate to work outcomes, longitudinal study of the management and execution of the Space Lab Mission Development Test 3 (SMD 3) was performed at NASA Ames Research Center. A view of the problems likely to arise in organizations and some methods of coping with these problems are presented as well as the conclusions and recommendations that pertain strictly to SMD 3 management. Emphasis is placed on the broader context of future space facility projects and additional problems that may be anticipated. A model of management that may be used to facilitate problem solving and communication - management by objectives (MBO) is presented. Some problems of communication and emotion management that MBO does not address directly are considered. Models for promoting mature, constructive and satisfying emotional relationships among group members are discussed

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.

A generic C1C^1 map has no absolutely continuous invariant probability measure

Let $M$ be a smooth compact manifold (maybe with boundary, maybe disconnected) of any dimension $d \ge 1$. We consider the set of $C^1$ maps $f:M\to M$ which have no absolutely continuous (with respect to Lebesgue) invariant probability measure. We show that this is a residual (dense $G_\delta) set in the$C^1$ topology. In the course of the proof, we need a generalization of the usual Rokhlin tower lemma to non-invariant measures. That result may be of independent interest.Comment: 12 page

Semiclassical Theory of Quantum Chaotic Transport: Phase-Space Splitting, Coherent Backscattering and Weak Localization

We investigate transport properties of quantized chaotic systems in the short wavelength limit. We focus on non-coherent quantities such as the Drude conductance, its sample-to-sample fluctuations, shot-noise and the transmission spectrum, as well as coherent effects such as weak localization. We show how these properties are influenced by the emergence of the Ehrenfest time scale \tE. Expressed in an optimal phase-space basis, the scattering matrix acquires a block-diagonal form as \tE increases, reflecting the splitting of the system into two cavities in parallel, a classical deterministic cavity (with all transmission eigenvalues either 0 or 1) and a quantum mechanical stochastic cavity. This results in the suppression of the Fano factor for shot-noise and the deviation of sample-to-sample conductance fluctuations from their universal value. We further present a semiclassical theory for weak localization which captures non-ergodic phase-space structures and preserves the unitarity of the theory. Contrarily to our previous claim [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 116801 (2005)], we find that the leading off-diagonal contribution to the conductance leads to the exponential suppression of the coherent backscattering peak and of weak localization at finite \tE. This latter finding is substantiated by numerical magnetoconductance calculations.Comment: Typos in central eqns corrected (this paper supersedes cond-mat/0509186) 20page