Exact results for chaotic scattering and applications to microwave experiments

Scattering theory as developed in nuclear physics and related theories from other fields find numerous applications in a variety of different wave systems, ranging from the quantum to the classical scale. When the system is chaotic or in another sense sufficiently complex, statistical methods involving random matrices can be used to calculate precise predictions of distributions and correlation functions. Closely related approaches are now routinely used in wireless communication. I report our solution of a long-standing problem which is of particular interest for data comparison, namely the distribution of the off-diagonal scattering matrix elements. I demonstrate that our results fully describe recent microwave experiments.