The semiclassical relation between open trajectories and periodic orbits for the Wigner time delay

Jack Kuipers

Universität Regensburg, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Regensburg, Germany

The Wigner time delay of a classically chaotic quantum system can be expressed semiclassically either in terms of pairs of scattering trajectories that enter and leave the system or in terms of the periodic orbits trapped inside the system. We show how these two pictures are related on the semiclassical level. We start from the semiclassical expression involving scattering trajectories and derive from it all terms in the periodic orbit formula for the time delay. The main ingredient in this calculation is a new type of correlation between scattering trajectories which is due to trajectories that approach the trapped periodic orbits closely.

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