By employing the time-dependent approach, we investigate a quantum tunneling decay of many-particle systems. We apply it to a schematic one-dimensional three-body model with a heavy-core nucleus and two valence protons. We calculate the decay width for two-proton emission from the survival probability, which well obeys the exponential decay law after a sufficient time. The effect of the correlation between the two emitted protons is also studied by observing the time evolution of the two-particle density distribution. It is shown that the pairing correlation significantly enhances the probability for the simultaneous diproton decay.
By employing the time-dependent approach, we investigate a quantum tunneling decay of many-particle systems. We apply it to a schematic one-dimensional three-body model with a heavy-core nucleus and two valence protons. We calculate the decay width for two-proton emission from the survival probability, which well obeys the exponential decay law after a sufficient time. The effect of the correlation between the two emitted protons is also studied by observing the time evolution of the two-particle density distribution. It is shown that the pairing correlation significantly enhances the probability for the simultaneous diproton decay.
The decay process of the schematic one-dimensional three-body system is considered. A time-dependent approach is used in combination with a one-dimensional three-body model, which is composed of a heavier core nucleus and two nucleons, with the aim of describing its evolution in two-nucleon emission. The process is calculated from the initial state, in which the three ingredient particles are confined. In this process, two different types of emission can be found: the earlier process includes the emission of spatially correlated two-nucleon pair, like a dinucleon, whereas, at a subsequent time, all the particles are separated from each other. The time-dependent method can be a suitable option to investigate the meta-stable and/or open-quantum systems, where the complicated many-body dynamics should necessarily be taken into account.
Open-print version of dissertation thesis. This thesis focuses on the relation between the diproton correlation and the two-proton emission with quantum entanglement. For this purpose, I developed a time-dependent three-body (proton-proton-core) model, where one Cooper pair of protons move inside the mean-field potential. The time-dependent calculation based on the three-body model provides an intuitive way to describe the quantum dynamics of the entangled fermionic pair. It has been shown that, by considering the Cooper-pairing correlation in the initial state of the two protons, (i) the experimental 2p-decay width of Be-6 is well reproduced, and (ii) the two protons are emitted mainly as a diproton-like cluster with the spin-singlet configuration in the early stage of the emission. Hence, the two-proton emission can provide an access to the diproton correlation. This thesis presented the first step to theoretically investigate the diproton correlation as well as quantum entanglement in the time-dependent radioactive emission. [NOTE] In this open-print version, several Figures were inevitably eliminated, because of the copyright and/or file-size problems. Several minor corrections have been done, but without changing the scientific discussions, results, and conclusions from the original version in 2014.
While exponential decay is ubiquitous in nature, deviations at both short and long times are dictated by quantum mechanics. Nonexponential decay is known to arise due to the possibility of reconstructing the initial state from the decaying products. We discuss the quantum decay dynamics by tunneling of a many-particle system, characterizing the long-time nonexponential behavior of the nonescape and survival probabilities. The effects of contact interactions and quantum statistics are described. It is found that, whereas for noninteracting bosons the long-time decay follows a power law with an exponent linear in the number of particles N, the exponent becomes quadratic in N in the fermionic case. The same results apply to strongly interacting many-body systems related by the generalized Bose-Fermi duality. The faster fermionic decay can be traced back to the effective hard-core interactions between particles, which are as well the decaying products, and exhibit spatial antibunching which hinders the reconstruction of the initial unstable state. The results are illustrated with a paradigmatic model of quantum decay from a trap allowing leaks by tunneling, whose dynamics is described exactly by means of an expansion in resonant states.
Abstract The emission of two correlated fermions from a nuclear, or, in general, quantum meta-stable system is a poorly known, but fundamental problem: the interaction between the fermions can significantly affect the tunneling process. The behaviour of spin-singlet or spin-triplet emission has not been fully studied. In this article, the one-dimensional tunneling process of two fermions of the same kind is investigated. We solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the two-fermion (2F) state, which is initially confined inside the square-well-plus-barrier potential. The interaction between the two fermions is schematically described by a short-range square-well attractive potential. A noticeable difference between the spin-singlet and triplet emissions is shown. Their tunneling probability, which is evaluated from the time-dependent survival probability, depends on the total spin, even if the effective-barrier height is fixed to be equivalent. Also, a spatial correlation of two fermions appears (vanishes) in the spin-singlet (triplet) case. The total-spin dependence of 2F emission can be attributed to the anti-symmetrization condition: it allows (prohibits) degenerate pairing, where two fermions can occupy the same spatial orbit, in the spin-singlet (triplet) case. This degenerate pairing makes the spin-singlet 2F state more long-lived than the spin-triplet one, even under the equivalent conditions. Only in the spin-singlet channel, the short-range 2F attraction enhances the degenerate-pair component, providing the difference between correlated and uncorrelated emissions. On the other hand, the spin-triplet emission cannot profit from the 2F interaction, due to the Pauli principle. These conclusions are independent of the physical scales.
Recently we outlined an analytical method of solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for a model which simulates a decaying quantum system such as an $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-decaying nucleus. A particle in the model is initially confined around the origin and leaks out, tunneling through a potential barrier. The solution can be expressed as a linear combination of the Moshinsky functions, each of which is associated with a pole of the scattering S matrix of the model. In this paper we give a full account of the method with a few explicit examples. We examine deviations from the exponential decay law at very large times. We comment on a recent controversy regarding the t dependence of the survival and nonescape probabilities when t is very large.
We show that a two-proton emitter with a diproton-correlated initial state can act as a source of spin-correlated proton pairs. Using a time-dependent three-body model, we investigate the two-proton emission of 16Ne (14O+2p) and analyze the spin correlation of the emitted protons. We find that, when the emission proceeds as a democratic three-body process from an initial state containing a spin-singlet diproton correlation, the emitted protons exhibit a pronounced spin-correlation pattern exceeding the local-hidden-variable bound. This spin correlation closely resembles that of a pure spin-singlet pair. In contrast, this pattern is lost when the process is dominated by the sequential emission or when the initial diproton correlation is absent. These results demonstrate that a certain class of two-proton emitters can deliver spin-entangled proton pairs, and their spin correlation reflects the diproton correlation embedded in the initial state.