Semiclassical wave functions for open quantum billiards.

We present a semiclassical approximation to the scattering wave function Ψ(r,k) for an open quantum billiard, which is based on the reconstruction of the Feynman path integral. We demonstrate its remarkable numerical accuracy for the open rectangular billiard and show that the convergence of the semiclassical wave function to the full quantum state is controlled by the mean path length or equivalently the dwell time for a given scattering state. In the numerical implementation a cutoff length in the maximum path length or, equivalently, a maximum dwell time τ(max) included implies a finite energy resolution ΔE~τ(max)(-1). Possible applications include leaky billiards and systems with decoherence present.