# Wave Scattering through Classically Chaotic Cavities in the Presence of Absorption: An Information-Theoretic Model

## a The $`n=1`$ case.

This case, which describes a cavity with one waveguide supporting only one open channel ($`S`$ is thus the reflection amplitude back to the only channel we have), is, within our model (7), independent of the universality class $`\beta `$. Eq. (3) for $`S`$ in the polar representation reduces to $`S=\rho \mathrm{exp}i\theta `$; $`\rho ^2`$ represents the reflection coefficient $`R`$. The uniform weight (4) and the distribution (7) reduce to

$$d\mu _{sub}(S)=\rho d\rho d\theta ,dP(S)=Ce^{\nu \rho ^2}\rho d\rho d\theta .$$
(8)   
The $`R`$-probability density is

$$w(R)=De^{\nu R},0R1,$$
(9)   
$`D`$ and $`\nu `$ being given by

$$D=\frac{\nu }{1e^\nu },R=\frac{1}{\nu }\frac{1}{e^\nu 1}=\alpha .$$
(10)   
For weak absorption, $`\alpha 1`$, $`\nu \mathrm{}`$ and the distribution (9) becomes strongly peaked around $`R=1`$, i.e. the unitarity circle, reducing to the one-sided delta function $`\delta (1R)`$ as $`\alpha 1`$. In the other extreme of strong absorption, $`\nu +\mathrm{}`$, $`\alpha 1/\nu `$, $`D1/\alpha `$ and

$$w(R)R^1e^{R/R},$$
(11)   
Rayleigh’s distribution, with the average $`R=\alpha `$.

## b The orthogonal case for arbitrary $`n`$.

Using the results of Ref.  we find, for the average of an individual (angular) transmission or reflection coefficient

$$T_{ab}^{(1)}=R_{ab}^{(1)}=\alpha /(n+1)=(1/2)R_{aa}^{(1)}$$
(12)   
We see the occurrence of the familiar backward enhancement factor 2. For the second moments we find

$`T_{ab}^2^{(1)}=R_{ab}^2^{(1)}={\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =1}{\overset{n}{}}}|U_{1\alpha }|^4|U_{2\alpha }|^4_0\rho _\alpha ^4^{(1)}`$ (13)   
$`+2{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha \gamma =1}{\overset{n}{}}}|U_{1\alpha }|^2|U_{2\alpha }|^2|U_{1\gamma }|^2|U_{2\gamma }|^2_0\rho _\alpha ^2\rho _\gamma ^2^{(1)}.`$ (14)   
The indices 1 and 2 indicate any pair of different channels; $`\mathrm{}_0`$ stands for an average with respect to the invariant measure of the unitary group . For $`R_{aa}^2^{(1)}`$ one sets the two indices $`1`$ and $`2`$ equal.

For a two-waveguide problem with one channel in each waveguide the $`S`$ matrix is two dimensional ($`n=2N=2`$). Eq. (12) gives $`T^{(1)}=\alpha /3`$, $`R^{(1)}=2\alpha /3`$. Restricting ourselves to the limit of strong absorption, $`\alpha 1`$, the Lagrange multiplier $`\nu =3/2\alpha `$ and we obtain

$$T^2^{(1)}2\left[T^{(1)}\right]^2.$$
(15)   
Although we have not calculated the statistical distribution of $`T`$, result (15) is consistent with the Rayleigh distribution for the transmission coefficient $`T`$.

For a large number of channels, $`n=2N1`$, Eqs. (14) and (12) give 

$$T_{ab}^2^{(1)}=R_{ab}^2^{(1)}2\frac{\alpha ^2}{n^2}2\left[T_{ab}^{(1)}\right]^2.$$
(16)   
and similarly, $`R_{aa}^2^{(1)}2\left[R_{aa}^{(1)}\right]^2`$, the relation between first and second moments for an exponential distribution with the average value (12), which becomes smaller as the absorption increases.

For no absorption one reaches, in the limit $`n1`$, a Rayleigh distribution for $`R_{aa}`$. Ref.  shows that, for the COE ($``$ being an approximation for large $`n`$)

$`w^{(1)}(R_{aa})=C\left(1R_{aa}\right)^{\frac{n3}{2}}R_{aa}^1e^{R_{aa}/R_{aa}}.`$

## c The unitary case for arbitrary $`n`$.

In the unitary case, the statistical properties of a transmission coefficient is identical to that of a diagonal or off-diagonal reflection coefficient. The following equations are thus written for $`T_{ab}`$. We find, for its average, $`T_{ab}^{(2)}=\alpha /n`$; we have used the result  $`\left|U_{1\alpha }\right|^2_0=1/n`$. The difference in expectation values between the two symmetry classes is thus

$$T_{ab}^{(1)}T_{ab}^{(2)}=\alpha /[n(n+1)].$$
(17)   
For the second moment of $`T_{ab}`$ we have

$`T_{ab}^2^{(2)}=2{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha \gamma }{}}|U_{1\alpha }|^2|U_{1\gamma }|^2_0|V_{\alpha 2}|^2|V_{\gamma 2}|^2_0\rho _\alpha ^2\rho _\gamma ^2`$ (18)   
$`=[2/(n+1)^2]\left\{[(n1)/n]\rho _1^2\rho _2^2^{(2)}+(2/n)\rho _1^4^{(2)}\right\}.`$ (19)   
We have used the result  $`|U_{1\alpha }|^2|U_{1\gamma }|^2_0=\left(1+\delta _{\alpha \gamma }\right)/\left[n(n+1)\right]`$.

For a two-waveguide problem with one channel in each waveguide ($`n=2N=2`$) we have $`T^{(2)}=\alpha /2`$. In the limit of strong absorption, $`\alpha 1`$, the Lagrange multiplier $`\nu =2/\alpha `$ and we obtain a relation like (15). For a large number of channels $`n=2N1`$, Eq. (19) gives a similar relation, now for $`T_{ab}`$, which is again consistent with Rayleigh’s distribution.

For CUE (i.e. no absorption) one reaches a Rayleigh distribution for $`n1`$. Ref.  finds for the the distribution of a single transmission coefficient as

$$w(T_{ab})=C\left(1T_{ab}\right)^{n2}T_{ab}^1e^{T_{ab}/T_{ab}}.$$
(20)   
## d Comparison with numerical simulations

Some of our predictions are compared below with RMT numerical simulations for $`\beta =1`$. The $`S`$ matrices are constructed as $`S(E)=\left[I_niK(E)\right]^1\left[I_n+iK(E)\right]`$, with $`K_{ab}(E)=_\lambda \gamma _{\lambda a}\gamma _{\lambda b}/\left[E_\lambda E\right]`$ and $`(I_n)_{ab}=\delta _{ab}`$ ($`a,b=1,\mathrm{},n`$). The $`E_\lambda `$’s are generated from an “unfolded” zero-centered GOE  with average spacing $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The $`\gamma _{\lambda a}`$’s are statistically independent, real, zero-centered Gaussian random variables. At $`E=0`$, $`S_{ab}=\left[1+\pi \gamma _{\lambda a}^2/\mathrm{\Delta }\right]^1\left[1\pi \gamma _{\lambda a}^2/\mathrm{\Delta }\right]\delta _{ab}`$, and we require $`S=0`$. In the quantum case, addition of a constant imaginary potential $`iW`$ inside the cavity makes the $`E_\lambda `$’s complex and equal to $`E_\lambda iW`$ (see also Ref. ). This is equivalent to evaluating the above expressions at the complex energy $`E+iW`$, which makes $`S(E+iW)`$ subunitary. Although Eq. (7) gives the probability distribution for the full $`S`$ matrix and arbitrary $`n`$, we only analyze below individual (angular) reflection and transmission coefficients, for $`n=1,2`$.

Fig. 1 shows for $`n=1`$ the results of the RMT numerical simulations (as histograms), compared with the present model for the corresponding value of $`\alpha `$ (continuous curves). For strong absorption the model works very well, the agreement with Rayleigh’s law being excellent, while for moderate and weak absorptions the model fails.

Fig. 2 shows the distribution of the transmission coefficient $`T`$ obtained from a RMT simulation for $`n=2`$. The agreement with the Rayleigh distribution with the centroid $`T=\alpha /3`$ is excellent; $`R`$ was also checked and found to agree with $`2\alpha /3`$.

That individual transmission and reflection coefficients attain a Rayleigh distribution for strong absorption can be understood as follows. $`S_{ab}(E+iW)`$ coincides  with the energy average of $`S_{ab}(E)`$ evaluated with a Lorentzian weighting function of half-width $`W`$. If $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{corr}`$ is the correlation energy, $`W`$ can be thought of as containing $`m=W/\mathrm{\Gamma }^{corr}`$ independent intervals. If $`m1`$, by the central-limit theorem the real and imaginary parts of $`S_{ab}`$ attain a Gaussian distribution, and $`\left|S_{ab}\right|^2`$ an exponential distribution. This seems to be the situation captured by the maximum-entropy approach.

Summarizing, the results presented in this paper indicate that wave scattering through classically chaotic cavities in the presence of strong absorption can be described in terms of an information-theoretic model.

We benefited from the constructive criticism of the first version of the paper by C. W. J. Beenakker and P. W. Brouwer. One of the authors (PAM) acknowledges partial financial support from CONACyT, Mexico, through Contract No. 2645P-E, as well as the hospitality of Bar-Ilan University, where most of this work was performed.