English

Tunneling as a Source for Quantum Chaos

Quantum Physics 2015-07-20 v1

Abstract

We use an one dimensional model of a square barrier embedded in an infinite potential well to demonstrate that tunneling leads to a complex behavior of the wave function and that the degree of complexity may be quantified by use of the spatial entropy function defined by S = -\int |\Psi(x,t)|^2 ln |\Psi(x,t)|^2 dx. There is no classical counterpart to tunneling, but a decrease in the tunneling in a short time interval may be interpreted as an approach of a quantum system to a classical system. We show that changing the square barrier by increasing the height/width do not only decrease the tunneling but also slows down the rapid rise of the entropy function, indicating that the entropy growth is an essentially quantum effect.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1507.04842,
  title  = {Tunneling as a Source for Quantum Chaos},
  author = {Ofir Flom and Asher Yahalom and Haggai Zilberberg and L. P. Horwitz and Jacob Levitan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1507.04842},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

14 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:13:39.545Z