Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 274101 (2001) [4 pages]Observation of Islands of Stability in Soft Wall Atom-Optics BilliardsReceived 12 July 2001; published 11 December 2001 We report on numerical and experimental observations of islands of stability induced in a Bunimovich stadium atom-optics billiard by a soft wall repulsive potential. A deviation from exponential decay of the survival probability of atoms in an open billiard is observed, and explained by the presence of these stable islands and a sticky region surrounding them. We also investigate islands in dispersing billiards with soft walls, and predict a new mechanism for their formation. © 2001 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.274101
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.274101
PACS:
05.45.Ac, 32.80.Pj, 42.50.Vk
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