Quantum tunneling and chaotic dynamics

We investigate the effect of the structure of a mixed (regular and chaotic) phase-space on the process of tunneling. This is done by studying the way in which classical transport in phase-space affects the energy splitting of quasidoublets of the spectrum of the laplacian on an annular domain bounded by two non-concentric circles. The tunneling is increased as the transport through chaotic regions grows. The actual value of the energy splitting of a given doublet is very sensitive to its position in the energy spectrum as well as to its location in phase-space.