Experimental Test of a Trace Formula for a Chaotic Three-Dimensional Microwave Cavity

We have measured resonance spectra in a superconducting microwave cavity with the shape of a three-dimensional generalized Bunimovich stadium billiard and analyzed their spectral fluctuation properties. The experimental length spectrum exhibits contributions from periodic orbits of nongeneric modes and from unstable periodic orbits of the underlying classical system. It is well reproduced by our theoretical calculations based on the trace formula derived by Balian and Duplantier for chaotic electromagnetic cavities.