Authors Referees APS Members |
December 2007, to be published in Physical Review E
Prevalence of marginally unstable periodic orbits in chaotic billiards
The dynamics of chaotic billiards is significantly influenced by coexisting regions of regular motion. Here we investigate the prevalence of a different fundamental structure, which is formed by marginally unstable periodic orbits and stands apart from the regular regions. We show that these structures both {\it exist} and {\it strongly influence} the dynamics of locally perturbed billiards, which include a large class of widely studied systems. We demonstrate the impact of these structures in the quantum regime using microwave experiments in annular billiards. © 2008 The American Physical Society.
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