Quantum mechanical tunneling at high energy

Bachas, C; Lazarides, G; Shaft, Q; Tiktopoulos, G

dc.contributor.author	Bachas, C	en
dc.contributor.author	Lazarides, G	en
dc.contributor.author	Shaft, Q	en
dc.contributor.author	Tiktopoulos, G	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-01T01:08:31Z
dc.date.available	2014-03-01T01:08:31Z
dc.date.issued	1991	en
dc.identifier.issn	0370-2693	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://dspace.lib.ntua.gr/xmlui/handle/123456789/10542
dc.relation.uri	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-4243214845&partnerID=40&md5=2b208af402629e52f525c2409cbfc51f	en
dc.subject.classification	Physics, Multidisciplinary	en
dc.subject.other	WEINBERG-SALAM THEORY	en
dc.subject.other	BARYON-NUMBER	en
dc.subject.other	WEAK-INTERACTIONS	en
dc.subject.other	NON-CONSERVATION	en
dc.subject.other	TEV	en
dc.subject.other	ANOMALIES	en
dc.subject.other	VIOLATION	en
dc.subject.other	BREAKDOWN	en
dc.subject.other	UNIVERSE	en
dc.subject.other	BEHAVIOR	en
dc.title	Quantum mechanical tunneling at high energy	en
heal.type	journalArticle	en
heal.language	English	en
heal.publicationDate	1991	en
heal.abstract	We study tunneling processes for a quantum mechanical particle in a double-well potential. We show that the instanton estimate of the transition rate between excited states in the two wells is reliable at energies much below the barrier height and weak coupling, in that it is asymptotic to the WKB result. We illustrate how the growth of the amplitude with energy can in a generic basis be perceived as partly due to the growth of available phase space, and we comment on the infrared divergences that appear in the calculation of radiative corrections. We then calculate the rate of tunneling from the ground state in one well to an excited state in the other, induced by an external periodic force, and show that it grows with energy like the geometric mean of the vacuum-to-vacuum and excited-to-excited-state rates. This slower growth is due to the difficulty of converting the energy, initially stored in a single quantum, to large occupation number. We argue by extrapolation that even at energies near the barrier height, induced tunneling should be suppressed by a fraction of the instanton action.	en
heal.publisher	ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV	en
heal.journalName	Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics	en
dc.identifier.isi	ISI:A1991GN32600017	en
dc.identifier.volume	268	en
dc.identifier.issue	3-4	en
dc.identifier.spage	401	en
dc.identifier.epage	407	en