We explain the observation of clusters in the tunneling resonance spectra of small metallic particles of few nanometer size. Each cluster of resonances is identified with one excited single--electron state of the metal particle, shifted as a result of the different nonequilibrium occupancy configurations of the other single--electron states. Assuming the underlying classical dynamics of the electrons to be chaotic, we determine the typical shift to be $\Delta/g$ where $g$ is the dimensionless conductance of the grain.
Categories: cond-mat