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Physical Review A

Quantum tunneling in dissipative systems

Edward G. Harris

Published Aug 1, 1993• 33 citations
Publisher

Abstract

As a prelude to a discussion of tunneling in the presence of dissipation, we discuss the damped harmonic oscillator. We show that for a harmonic-oscillator potential, the Caldeira-Leggett Hamiltonian can be reduced to a sum of independent harmonic-oscillator Hamiltonians by a normal-mode transformation. We then discuss tunneling through a parabolic barrier and explain the apparently contradictory results in the literature. The decay of a metastable state is then discussed. We argue that much of the published work on tunneling in dissipative systems has assumed unphysical initial conditions. We calculate the tunneling out of a metastable state, on the assumption that the environment is initially at zero temperature, and find that quantum tunneling is enhanced by dissipation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.48.995

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As a prelude to a discussion of tunneling in the presence of dissipation, we discuss the damped harmonic oscillator. We show that for a harmonic-oscillator potential, the Caldeira-Leggett Hamiltonian can be reduced to a sum of independent harmonic-oscillator Hamiltonians by a normal-mode transformation. We then discuss tunneling through a parabolic barrier and explain the apparently contradictory results in the literature. The decay of a metastable state is then discussed. We argue that much of the published work on tunneling in dissipative systems has assumed unphysical initial conditions. We calculate the tunneling out of a metastable state, on the assumption that the environment is initially at zero temperature, and find that quantum tunneling is enhanced by dissipation.
In view of recent interest in the problem of macroscopic quantum tunneling in systems involving the Josephson effect, we present an accurate numerical calculation of the tunneling rate of a system from a metastable well, at zero temperature, in the presence of dissipative coupling to the environment. Although we concentrate on a specific form of dissipation, as discussed by Caldeira and Leggett, we believe that such a numerical method can be extended to other forms of dissipation as well. Our method is based on the framework recently described by Caldeira and Leggett, and requires (a) a novel treatment of a nonlinear integro-differential equation and (b) an extension of the usual Fredholm scattering theory so as to be applicable to the present dissipative problem. We present explicit results for wide ranges of dissipation and estimate our error in the calculation of the exponent to be no larger than 0.1% and of the prefactor to be no larger than 2%.
Applying a technique developed recently [L. H. Yu and C. P. Sun, Phys. Rev. A 49, 592 (1994); L. H. Yu, Phys. Lett. 202, 167 (1995)] for a harmonic oscillator coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators, we present an exact solution for the tunneling problem in an Ohmic dissipative system with inverted harmonic potential. The result shows that while the dissipation tends to suppress the tunneling, the Brownian motion tends to enhance the tunneling. Whether the tunneling rate increases or not would then depend on the initial conditions. We give a specific formula to calculate the tunneling probability determined by various parameters and the initial conditions. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Usually one finds that dissipation tends to make a quantum system more classical in nature. We study the effect of momentum dissipation on a quantum system. The momentum of the particle is coupled bi-linearly to the momenta of a harmonic oscillator heat bath. For a harmonic oscillator system we find that the position and momentum variances for momentum coupling are, respectively, identical to momentum and position variances for spatial friction. This implies that momentum coupling leads to an increase in the fluctuations in position as the temperature is lowered, exactly the opposite of the classical-like localization of the oscillator, found with spatial friction. For a parabolic barrier, momentum coupling causes an increase in the unstable normal mode barrier frequency, as compared to the lowering of the barrier frequency in the presence of purely spatial coupling. This increase in the frequency leads to an enhancement of the thermal tunneling flux, which below the crossover temperature becomes exponentially large. The crossover temperature between tunneling and thermal activation increases with momentum friction so that quantum effects in the escape are relevant at higher temperatures.
Usually one finds that dissipation tends to make a quantum system more classical in nature. In this paper we study the effect of momentum dissipation on a quantum system. The momentum of the particle is coupled bilinearly to the momenta of a harmonic oscillator heat bath. For a harmonic oscillator system we find that the position and momentum variances for momentum coupling are respectively identical to momentum and position variances for spatial friction. This implies that momentum coupling leads to an increase in the fluctuations in position as the temperature is lowered, exactly the opposite of the classical like localization of the oscillator, found with spatial friction. For a parabolic barrier, momentum coupling causes an {\it increase} in the unstable normal mode barrier frequency, as compared to the lowering of the barrier frequency in the presence of purely spatial coupling. This increase in the frequency leads to an enhancement of the thermal tunneling flux, which below the crossover temperature becomes exponentially large. The crossover temperature between tunneling and thermal activation {\it increases} with momentum friction so that quantum effects in the escape are relevant at higher temperatures.
A quantum system which can tunnel out of a metastable state, and which interacts with an environment at temperature TTT, is considered. It is found that heat enhances the tunneling probability at T=0T=0T=0 by a factor $\mathrm{exp}[A(T)M{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}\frac{{q}_{0}^{2}}{\ensuremath{\hbar}}]$, where MMM is the mass of the system, ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$ is the frequency of small oscillations about the metastable state, and q0{q}_{0}q0​ is the tunneling distance. For an undamped system A(T)A(T)A(T) is exponentially small, $A(T)\ensuremath{\propto}\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\hbar}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}}{{k}_{B}T})$, whereas for a dissipative system A(T)A(T)A(T) grows algebraically with temperature.
The effects of coupling to a harmonic oscillator on the quantum tunneling of a macroscopic motion are studied through the influence functional formalism of Feynman's path integral method for the general coupling form factor. As an example, we consider the model in which the potential barrier is parabolic and the coupling Hamiltonian is linear in both coordinates of the macroscopic motion and of the intrinsic harmonic oscillator. The results are then compared with the exact solution obtained through the canonical transformation into normal coordinates in the limiting cases when the normal coordinates reduce to the original coordinates. We found that: (1) In the adiabatic case, i.e., when the recurrence time $\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{\ensuremath{\omega}}$ of the oscillator is much shorter than the transmission time through the macroscopic potential barrier, the effect of oscillator coupling can be well represented by an effective potential. The coupling enhances the tunneling probability on the whole. (2) There exists a critical energy, above which the tunneling probability is reduced because of the linear oscillator coupling. In the weak coupling limit and when $\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, the critical energy becomes $\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\infty}$, so that the coupling to the oscillator always reduces the tunneling probability.NUCLEAR REACTIONS Quantum tunneling, coupling of macroscopic motion to intrinsic oscillators, semiclassical method, heavy ion fusion.