Strength distributions and symmetry breaking in coupled microwave billiards.

Flat microwave cavities can be used to experimentally simulate quantum mechanical systems. By coupling two such cavities, we study the equivalent to symmetry breaking in quantum mechanics. As the coupling is tunable, we can measure resonance strength distributions as a function of the symmetry breaking. We analyze the data by employing a qualitative model based on random matrix theory and show that the results derived from the strength distribution are consistent with those previously obtained from spectral statistics.