Integrating random matrix theory predictions with short-time dynamical effects in chaotic systems

Abstract

We discuss a modification to random matrix theory eigenstate statistics that systematically takes into account the nonuniversal short-time behavior of chaotic systems. The method avoids diagonalization of the Hamiltonian; instead it requires only knowledge of short-time dynamics for a chaotic system or ensemble of similar systems. Standard random matrix theory and semiclassical predictions are recovered in the limits of zero Ehrenfest time and infinite Heisenberg time, respectively. As examples, we discuss wave-function autocorrelations and cross correlations, and show that significant improvement in accuracy is obtained for simple chaotic systems where comparison can be made with brute-force diagonalization. The accuracy of the method persists even when the short-time dynamics of the system or ensemble is known only in a classical approximation. Further improvement in the rate of convergence is obtained when the method is combined with the correlation function bootstrapping approach introduced previously.