VIBRATING SOAP FILMS - AN ANALOG FOR QUANTUM CHAOS ON BILLIARDS

We present an experimental setup based on the normal modes of vibratin g soap films which shows quantum features of integrable and chaotic bi lliards. In particular, we obtain the so-called scars-narrow linear re gions with high probability along classical periodic orbits-for the cl assically chaotic billiards. We show that these scars are also visible at low frequencies. Finally, we suggest some applications of our expe rimental setup in other related two-dimensional wave phenomena. (C) 19 98 American Association of Physics Teachers.