Isolated resonances in conductance fluctuations in ballistic billiards

Abstract

We study numerically quantum transport through a billiard with a classically mixed phase space. In particular, we calculate the conductance and Wigner delay time by employing a recursive Green's function method. We find sharp, isolated resonances with a broad distribution of resonance widths in both the conductance and the Wigner time, in contrast to the well-known smooth conductance fluctuations of completely chaotic billiards. In order to elucidate the origin of the isolated resonances, we calculate the associated scattering states as well as the eigenstates of the corresponding closed system. As a result, we find a one-to-one correspondence between the resonant scattering states and eigenstates of the closed system. The broad distribution of resonance widths is traced to the structure of the classical phase space. Husimi representations of the resonant scattering states show a strong overlap either with the regular regions in phase space or with the hierarchical parts surrounding the regular regions. We are thus lead to a classification of the resonant states into regular and hierarchical, depending on their phase space portrait.