Related papers: Multichannel decay law
The most unstable quantum states and elementary particles possess more than a single decay channel. At the same time, it is well known that typically the decay law is not simply exponential. Therefore, it is natural to ask how to spot the…
In the study of decays, it is quite common that an unstable quantum state/particle has multiple distinct decay channels. In this case, besides the survival probability $p(t)$, also the probability $w_{i}(t)$ that the decay occurs between…
We study the deviations from the exponential decay law, both in quantum field theory (QFT) and quantum mechanics (QM), for an unstable particle which can decay in (at least) two decay channels. After a review of general properties of…
We study the survival probability of moving relativistic unstable particles with definite momentum $\vec{p} \neq 0$. The amplitude of the survival probability of these particles is calculated using its integral representation. We found…
Late time properties of moving relativistic particles are studied. Within the proper relativistic treatment of the problem we find decay curves of such particles and we show that late time deviations of the survival probability of these…
We investigate the survival probability of unstable states, the time-dependence of an initial state, in coupled channels. First, we extend the formulation of the survival probability from single channel to coupled channels (two channels).…
We analyze the survival probability of unstable particles in the context of quantum field theory. After introducing the spectral function of resonances, we show that deviations from the exponential decay law occur at short times after the…
We discuss the relation between the quantum-mechanical survival probability of an unstable system in motion and that of the system at rest. The usual definition of the survival probability which takes into account only the time evolution of…
After reviewing the description of an unstable state in the framework of Lee Hamiltonians (valid both for Quantum Mechanics (QM) and Quantum Field Theory (QFT)), we consider some theoretical aspects of non-exponential decays: the case of…
We present a detailed non-perturbative analysis of the time-evolution of a well-known quantum-mechanical system - a particle between potential walls - describing the decay of unstable states. For sufficiently high barriers, corresponding to…
The relativistic quantum decay laws of moving unstable particles are analyzed for a general class of mass distribution densities which behave as power laws near the (non-vanishing) lower bound $\mu_0$ of the mass spectrum. The survival…
Within a well-known decay model describing a particle confined initially within a spherical $\delta$ potential shell, we consider the situation when the undecayed state has an unusual energy distribution decaying slowly as $k\to\infty$; the…
The short-time behavior of quantum decay of an unstable state initially located within an interaction region of finite range is investigated using a resonant expansion of the survival amplitude. It is shown that in general the short-time…
The decay of a moving system is studied in case the system is initially prepared in a two-mass unstable quantum state. The survival probability $\mathcal{P}_p(t)$ is evaluated over short and long times in the reference frame where the…
Properties of unstable false vacuum states are analyzed from the point of view of the quantum theory of unstable states. Some of false vacuum states survive up to times when their survival probability has a non-exponential form. At times…
An effect generated by the nonexponential behavior of the survival amplitude of an unstable state in the long time region is considered. We find that the instantaneous energy of the unstable state for a large class of models of unstable…
We use (nonconservative) dynamical semigroups to investigate the decay law of a quantum unstable system weakly coupled with a large environment. We find that the deviations from the classical exponential law are small and can be safely…
The exponential decay law is well established since its first derivation in 1928, however it is not exact but only an approximate description. In recent years some experimental and theoretical indications for non-exponential decay have been…
This paper is a pedagogical yet critical introduction to the quantum description of unstable systems, mostly at the level of a graduate quantum mechanics course. Quantum decays appear in many different fields of physics, and their…
An unstable quantum state generally decays following an exponential law, as environmental decoherence is expected to prevent the decay products from recombining to reconstruct the initial state. Here we show the existence of deviations from…