Decay of classical chaotic systems: The case of the Bunimovich stadium

The escape of an ensemble of particles from the Bunimovich stadium via a small hole has been studied numerically. The decay probability starts out exponentially but has an algebraic tail. The weight of the algebraic decay tends to zero for vanishing hole size. This behavior is explained by the slow transport of the particles close to the marginally stable bouncing ball orbits. It is contrasted with the decay function of the corresponding quantum system. © 1996 The American Physical Society.