The probability for wave packet to remain in a disordered cavity

TL;DR

This paper investigates the probability that a wave packet remains in a disordered cavity over time, revealing exponential decay at short times and log-normal decay at long times, independent of the cavity's dimensionality.

Contribution

It provides a non-perturbative field theory analysis and an interpolation formula for the survival probability in disordered cavities, extending known conductance results.

Findings

Probability decays exponentially for short times

Probability decays log-normally for long times

Results are independent of cavity dimensionality

Abstract

We show that the probability that a wave packet will remain in a disordered cavity until the time $t$ decreases exponentially for times shorter than the Heisenberg time and log-normally for times much longer than the Heisenberg time. Our result is equivalent to the known result for time-dependent conductance; in particular, it is independent of the dimensionality of the cavity. We perform non-perturbative ensemble averaging over disorder by making use of field theory. We make use of a one-mode approximation which also gives an interpolation formula (arccosh-normal distribution) for the probability to remain. We have checked that the optimal fluctuation method gives the same result for the particular geometry which we have chosen. We also show that the probability to remain does not relate simply to the form-factor of the delay time. Finally, we give an interpretation of the result in terms of path integrals. PACS numbers: 73.23.-b, 03.65.Nk