Inhomogeneous resonance broadening and statistics of complex wave functions in a chaotic microwave cavity

The complex (non-real) character of wave functions is ubiquitous in open or dissipative wave systems. We experimentally study the various manifestations of ohmic losses in a two-dimensional microwave chaotic cavity and show that losses located at the contour of the cavity lead to resonance widths which vary from mode to mode. We describe how this inhomogeneous damping is responsible for a spatially non-uniform phase of the wave function. We experimentally demonstrate that the inhomogeneous part of the width is related to a single parameter, which measures the amount of complexity of the wave function, and provide theoretical arguments in favor of this relation.