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arXiv:0804.3212 · Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Relation between phase and dwell times for quantum tunneling of a relativistically propagating particle

Alex E. Bernardini

Published Jun 1, 2008• 3 citations
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Abstract

The general and explicit relation between the phase time and the dwell time for quantum tunneling of a relativistically propagating particle is investigated and quantified. In analogy with previously obtained non-relativistic results, it is shown that the group delay can be described in terms of the dwell time and a self-interference delay. Lessons concerning the phenomenology of the relativistic tunneling are drawn.

DOI
10.1209/0295-5075/82/60005

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The general and explicit relation between the phase time and the dwell time for quantum tunneling of a relativistically propagating particle is investigated and quantified. In analogy with previously obtained non-relativistic results, it is shown that the group delay can be described in terms of the dwell time and a self-interference delay. Lessons concerning the phenomenology of the relativistic tunneling are drawn.
For the relativistic tunneling effect described using Dirac's equation, Winful et al. [Phys. Rev. A 70, 052112 (2004)] presented the deduction of a general result that allows for the determination of the phase time (group delay) as the sum of the particle dwell time inside a potential barrier and of the self-interference delay associated with the incident and reflected wave functions interaction. In this paper, a mathematical model is derived through a construction analogous to the proposal mentioned above, but based on an alternative representation for Dirac's equation. This representation is similar to the one introduced by Ajaib [Found. Phys. 45, 1586 (2015)]. Thus, from the application of this model in the study of the tunneling effect in the absence of an external magnetic field, the influence of spin on the tunneling times is described. More specifically, the tunneling time is obtained as the sum of the dwell times inside the potential barrier for particles with spin up and spin down and the self-interaction time associated with the incident and reflected wave functions for particles with spin up.
The one-dimensional Dirac equation is studied for square-well potential in the presence of generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). Based on the exact solution, the general and explicit relation between the phase time and the dwell time is given and quantified. The phase time, dwell time and self-interference delay are calculated as well and it is shown that the GUP has effects on the tunneling time. Moreover, the effect of GUP on the tunneling time showed a slight change with the change of mass, and goes to zero with the increase of kinetic energy.
In this paper we study the quantum tunneling time in the light-front using the technique of dwell time (or delay time). We introduce this method of calculation considering the delay time for the Schr\"odinger equation. Then, as we consider the relativistic Klein-Gordon equation, we face a problem, because the probability density for this case is not positive definite, and the delay time technique becomes inapplicable here. Other techniques have been devised to tackle this issue, but comparison of results becomes difficult because methods used are different. Therefore, there is a discrepancy in the tunneling time assessment for the low-energy non relativistic and relativistic case. By treating the Klein-Gordon equation in the light-front, we show that this discrepancy disappears.
In this paper we examine critically and in detail some existing definitions for the tunnelling times, namely: the phase-time; the centroid-based times; the Buttiker and Landauer times; the Larmor times; the complex (path-integral and Bohm) times; the dwell time, and finally the generalized (Olkhovsky and Recami) dwell time, by adding also some numerical evaluations. Then, we pass to examine the equivalence between quantum tunnelling and "photon tunnelling" (evanescent waves propagation), with particular attention to tunnelling with Superluminal group-velocities ("Hartman effect"). At last, in an Appendix, we add a bird-eye view of all the experimental sectors of physics in which Superluminal motions seem to appear.