We provide a statistical characterization of the ionization yield of
one-dimensional, periodically driven Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen, in the
spirit of Anderson localization theory. We find excellent agreement with
predictions for the conductance across an Anderson localized, quasi
one-dimensional, disordered wire, in the semiclassical limit of highly excited
atomic initial states. For the moderate atomic excitations typically
encountered in state of the art laboratory experiments, finite-size effects
induce significant deviations from the solid-state picture. However, large
scale fluctuations of the atomic conductance prevail and are robust when
averaged over a finite interval of driving field amplitudes, as inevitably done
in the experiment.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure
