Chaotic Scattering of Microwaves

Abstract

In this paper we analyze a recent experiment conducted in an anechoic chamber, where the scattering of microwaves from an array of metallic cylinders was measured. This is a system which displays chaotic scattering in the short wave limit. The analysis of the experimental data is aimed at elucidating the effects of the underlying chaos. We describe a robust numerical method which provides the scattering matrix for any number of non overlapping reflecting cylinders. We use this method to calculate the scattering from one, two and three cylinders, and to compare the results in the numerical simulations with those obtained in the experiment. Both simulations and measurements validate the presented theory.