Scattering for a driven inverted Gaussian potential in terms of the chaotic invariant set

Abstract We study the classical electron scattering from a driven inverted Gaussian potential, an open system, in terms of its chaotic invariant set. This chaotic invariant set is described by a ternary horseshoe construction on an appropriate Poincare surface of section. We find the development parameters that describe the hyperbolic component of the chaotic invariant set. In addition, we show that the hierarchical structure of the fractal set of singularities of the scattering functions is the same as the structure of the chaotic invariant set. Finally, we construct a symbolic encoding of the hierarchical structure of the set of singularities of the scattering functions and use concepts from the thermodynamical formalism to obtain one of the measures of chaos of the fractal set of singularities, the topological entropy.