Realistic solution to the tunneling time problem
Abstract
There remains the old question of how long a quantum particle takes to tunnel through a potential barrier higher than its incident kinetic energy. In this article a solution of the question is proposed on the basis of a realistic explanation of quantum mechanics. The explanation implies that the tunneling particle has a certain chance to borrow enough energy from self-interference to high-jump over the barrier. The root-mean-square velocity and the effective tunneling time of an electron tunneling through a rectangular barrier are numerically calculated. No superluminal effect (Hartman effect) is found for the tunneling electron. Heisenberg's energy-time uncertainty relation for the tunneling effect is verified by calculating an introduced coefficient representing uncertainty. The present author argues that phase time, dwell time and B\"{u}tticker-Landauer time are not appropriate expressions for the actual transit time in a tunneling process. A quantum high-jumping model is presented to resolve the paradox that kinetic energy of the tunneling particle is negative and its momentum is imaginary.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0706.3510,
title = {Realistic solution to the tunneling time problem},
author = {Wang Guowen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0706.3510},
year = {2007}
}