Quantum Chaos, Irreversible Classical Dynamics and Random Matrix Theory

The Bohigas--Giannoni--Schmit conjecture stating that the statistical spectral properties of systems which are chaotic in their classical limit coincide with random matrix theory is proved. For this purpose a new semiclassical field theory for individual chaotic systems is constructed in the framework of the non--linear $\sigma$-model. The low lying modes are shown to be associated with the Perron--Frobenius spectrum of the underlying irreversible classical dynamics. It is shown that the existence of a gap in the Perron-Frobenius spectrum results in a RMT behavior. Moreover, our formalism offers a way of calculating system specific corrections beyond RMT.