Shell-Model studies of chaos and statistical properties in nuclei

Shell-model calculations with realistic empirical interactions constitute an excellent tool to study statistical properties of nuclei. Using large-scale shell-model calculations in pf- shell nuclei, we study how the onset of chaos depends on different properties of the nuclear interaction and on excitation energy. We make use of classical random matrix theory and other theoretical developments based on information theory and time series analysis. We show that besides energy-level statistics, other statistical properties like the complexity of wave functions are fundamental for a proper determination of the dynamical regime of nuclei. Important deviations from GOE are observed in level fluctuations and in the complexity of wave functions.