Statistical aspects of nuclear coupling to continuum

Various global characteristics of the coupling between bound and scattering states are explicitly studied on the basis of the realistic shell model embedded in the continuum. The characteristics are related to those of the scattering ensemble. It is found that in the region of high level density, the coupling matrix elements to the continuum are consistent with the assumptions of the statistical model. However, the assumption of channel equivalence is, in general, violated and the real part of the coupling matrix elements cannot be neglected.