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Quantum bungee jumping

Quantum Physics 2024-07-17 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

We show how a potential that is well-defined everywhere on the positive half-line, but diverges to -\infty as x0+x\rightarrow 0^+, may still be able to dynamically confine a particle to the (positive) half-line. We shall call this effect quantum bungee jumping: in the familiar quantum tunneling scenario one heading towards a wall is expected to bounce off it but instead passes through, while in the present scenario one jumping off a cliff is expected to fall but instead is pulled back. We discuss a particular example of a potential displaying this property, and study its energy eigenstates and spectrum.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.11137,
  title  = {Quantum bungee jumping},
  author = {Rodrigo Andrade e Silva},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.11137},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

5 pages, 3 figures