Quantum decay of an open chaotic system: A semiclassical approach

Abstract

We study the quantum probability to survive in an open chaotic system in the framework of the van Vleck-Gutzwiller propagator and present the first such calculation that accounts for quantum interference effects. Specifically, we calculate quantum deviations from the classical decay after the break time t for both broken and preserved time-reversal symmetry. The source of these corrections is identified in interfering pairs of correlated classical trajectories. In our approach the quantized chaotic system is modelled by a quantum graph.