Internal chaos in an open quantum system: From Ericson to conductance fluctuations

The model of an open Fermi-system is used for studying the interplay of intrinsic chaos and irreversible decay into open continuum channels. Two versions of the model are characterized by one-body chaos coming from disorder or by many-body chaos due to the inter-particle interactions. The continuum coupling is described by the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Our main interest is in specific correlations of cross sections for various channels in dependence on the coupling strength and degree of internal chaos. The results are generic and refer to common features of various mesoscopic objects including conductance fluctuations and resonance nuclear reactions.