title: Experiments on elastomechanical wave functions in chaotic plates and their statistical features.
abstract: We measure the amplitude of the elastomechanical displacement at a fine grid of points on a free plate having the shape of a Sinai stadium. The obtained displacement field formally corresponds to a wave function in a quantum system. While the distribution of the squared amplitudes agrees with the prediction of random matrix theory (RMT), there is a strong deviation of the spatial correlator from the standard prediction for quantum chaotic systems. We show that this is due to the presence of two modes, leading to a beating phenomenon. We construct a proper extension of the spatial correlator within the framework of RMT.
authors.affiliation: Center for Chaos and Turbulence Studies, Niels Bohr Institute, Blegdamsvej 17, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schaadt
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Guhr
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ellegaard
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oxborrow