Causality and Time Dependence in Quantum Tunneling

M. S. Marinov, Bilha Segev

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Quantal penetration through a (stationary) one-dimensional potential barrier is considered as a time evolution of an initially prepared wave packet. The large-time asymptotics of the process is concerned. Locality of the potential imposes certain analytical properties of the interaction amplitudes in the energy representation. The results are presented in terms of development of the phase-space (Wigner's) quasi-distribution. The phase-space evolution kernel is constructed, and it is shown that in the presence of a positive potential no part of the distribution is transported faster than the free particle. For the case of a small initial momentum uncertainty, the deformation of the coordinate density is considered, including a possible advance of its maximum, which would not mean any noncausal signal transport.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)113-132
Number of pages20
JournalFoundations of Physics
Volume27
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 1997
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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