Semiclassical analysis of spectral correlations in mesoscopic systems

We consider the recently developed semiclassical analysis of the quantum-mechanical spectral form factor, which may be expressed in terms of classically definable properties. When applied to electrons whose classical behavior is diffusive, the results of earlier quantum-mechanical perturbative derivations, which were developed under a different set of assumptions, are reproduced. The comparison between the two derivations shows that the result depends not on their specific details, but to a large extent on the principle of quantum coherent superposition, and on the generality of the notion of diffusion. The connection with classical properties facilitates application to many physical situations.