Initial, non-exponential decay in billiards

R. Willox, I. Antoniou, J. Levitan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

We show that the decay of correlation functions in a classical billiard is initially non-exponential, very much in the same way as in the case of the initial non-exponential era in quantum decay. We consider a two-dimensional Sinai billiard, a computer simulation of which shows that a specific correlation function displays an initial non-exponential decay. The initial non-exponential era is larger when the Lyapunov exponent is smaller. The onset of the exponential era corresponds to the onset of chaos in the system and the initial non-exponential era may be understood as the preparation time for the manifestation of chaos.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)167-171
Number of pages5
JournalPhysics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics
Volume226
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 17 Feb 1997

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