Related papers: Decay of Quantum Accelerator Modes
The decay of an unstable system is usually described by an exponential law. Quantum mechanics predicts strong deviations of the survival probability from the exponential: indeed, the decay is initially quadratic, while at very large times…
In the study of quantum-mechanical tunneling processes, numerous approaches have been developed to determine the decay rate of states initially confined within a metastable potential region. Virtually all analytical treatments, however,…
The assisted tunneling of a metastable state between barriers is investigated analytically by means of a simplified one dimensional model. A time dependent perturbation changes the pole spectrum of the wave function introducing a larger…
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…
We study the decay of general initial states out of a metastable potential well in quantum mechanics. We provide a closed-form expression for the probability current that tunnels through the barrier in terms of the resonant states into…
Using a system consisting of a freely falling cloud of cold cesium atoms periodically kicked by pulses from a vertical standing wave of laser light, we present the first experimental observation of high-order quantum accelerator modes. This…
We review the description of tunnelling phenomena in the semi-classical approximation in ordinary quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory. In particular, we describe in detail the calculation, up to the first quantum corrections, of…
The concept of phase and dwell times used in tunneling is extended to quantum collisions to derive a relation between the phase and dwell time delays in scattering. This relation can be used to remove the near threshold s-wave singularities…
This paper is devoted to the study of quantum dissipation in cluster decay phenomena in the frame of the Lindblad approach to quantum open systems. The tunneling of a metastable state across a piecewise quadratic potential is envisaged for…
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 dynamics of a single quantum state embedded in one or several (quasi-)continua is one of the most studied phenomena in quantum mechanics. In this work we investigate its discrete analogue and consider short and long time dynamics based…
For over a decade several workers have argued for the existence of quantum deviations from the classical, Einstein dilation of the decay evolution of moving or Lorentz boosted unstable particles. While the general claim is correct, the…
Quantum dissipation in thermal environment is investigated, using the path integral approach. The reduced density matrix of the harmonic oscillator system coupled to thermal bath of oscillators is derived for arbitrary spectrum of bath…
The method developed by Van Dijk, Nogami and Toyama for obtaining the time-evolved wave function of a decaying quantum system is generalized to potentials and initial wave functions of non-compact support. The long time asymptotic behavior…
Variational perturbation theory is used to determine the decay rates of metastable states across a cubic barrier of arbitrary height. For high barriers, a variational resummation procedure is applied to the complex energy eigenvalues…
We revisit the formalism for tunneling in quantum field theory developed by Coleman and collaborators. In particular using the generalization of WKB methods for tunneling in quantum mechanics we avoid the problems with negative eigenvalues…
Quantum trajectories describe the stochastic evolution of an open quantum system conditioned on continuous monitoring of its output, such as by an ideal photodetector. In practice an experimenter has access to an output filtered through…
We put forward a model that describes a decaying and evanescent point source of non-interacting quantum waves in 1D. This point-source assumption allows for a simple description that captures the essential aspects of the dynamics of a wave…
Metastability is a quintessential feature of first order quantum phase transitions, which is lost either by dynamical instability or by nucleating bubbles of a true vacuum through quantum tunneling. By considering a drive across the first…
We systematically analyze the decay of metastable topological defects that arise from the spontaneous breakdown of gauge or global symmetries. Quantum-mechanical tunneling rates are estimated for a variety of decay processes. The decay rate…