SPECTRAL DECORRELATION OF NUCLEAR-LEVELS IN THE PRESENCE OF CONTINUUMDECAY

The fluctuation properties of nuclear giant resonance spectra are stud ied in the presence of continuum decay. The subspace of quasibound sta tes is specified by one-particle-one-hole and two-particle-two-hole ex citations, and the continuum coupling is generated by a scattering ens emble. It is found that, with an increasing number of open channels, t he real parts of the complex eigenvalues quickly decorrelate. This app ears to be related to the transition from power-law to exponential tim e decay of the survival probability of an initially nonstationary stat e.