Self-pulsing effect in chaotic scattering

Abstract

We study the quantum and classical scattering of Hamiltonian systems whose chaotic saddle is described by binary or ternary horseshoes. We are interested in parameters of the system for which a stable island, associated with the inner fundamental periodic orbit of the system exists and is large, but chaos around this island is well developed. In this situation, in classical systems, decay from the interaction region is algebraic, while in quantum systems it is exponential due to tunneling. In both cases, the most surprising effect is a periodic response to an incoming wave packet. The period of this self-pulsing effect or scattering echoes coincides with the mean period, by which the scattering trajectories rotate around the stable orbit. This period of rotation is directly related to the development stage of the underlying horseshoe. Therefore the predicted echoes will provide experimental access to topological information. We numerically test these results in kicked one dimensional models and in open billiards.Comment: Submitted to New Journal of Physics. Two movies (not included) and full-resolution figures are available at http://www.cicc.unam.mx/~mejia