Gaussian Fluctuations in Chaotic Eigenstates

Abstract

We study the fluctuations that are predicted in the autocorrelation function of an energy eigenstate of a chaotic, two-dimensional billiard by the conjecture (due to Berry) that the eigenfunction is a gaussian random variable. We find an explicit formula for the root-mean-square amplitude of the expected fluctuations in the autocorrelation function. These fluctuations turn out to be $O(\hbar^{1/2})$ in the small $\hbar$ (high energy) limit. For comparison, any corrections due to scars from isolated periodic orbits would also be $O(\hbar^{1/2})$. The fluctuations take on a particularly simple form if the autocorrelation function is averaged over the direction of the separation vector. We compare our various predictions with recent numerical computations of Li and Robnik for the Robnik billiard, and find good agreement. We indicate how our results generalize to higher dimensions.