Coupling between slow and fast degrees of freedom in systems with complex spectra: Driven systems

We consider many-body systems which display slow modes and have complex spectra of intrinsic states, as atomic nuclei, atomic clusters, deformable cavities, and so forth. The effects of the coupling between the intrinsic and the slow degrees of freedom is analyzed, by assuming random matrix properties for the intrinsic degrees of freedom and the fact that the time evolution of the slow degree of freedom modifies the intrinsic configuration of the system. By neglecting the reaction of the intrinsic degrees of freedom on the slow modes, we derive evolution equations for intrinsic state population probabilities, the average excitation energy, and their fluctuations. These evolution equations are characterized by strong memory effects, and only in the long time limit does the dynamics become Markovian. Copyright copyright 1995 Academic Press, Inc