Classical wave experiments on chaotic scattering

Abstract

We review recent research on the transport properties of classical waves through chaotic systems with special emphasis on microwaves and sound waves. Inasmuch as these experiments use antennas or transducers to couple waves into or out of the systems, scattering theory has to be applied for a quantitative interpretation of the measurements. Most experiments concentrate on tests of predictions from random matrix theory and the random plane wave approximation. In all studied examples a quantitative agreement between experiment and theory is achieved. To this end it is necessary, however, to take absorption and imperfect coupling into account, concepts that were ignored in most previous theoretical investigations. Classical phase space signatures of scattering are being examined in a small number of experiments.