Comment on "Tests of the Exponential Decay Law at Short and Long Times"

Yasuo Yoshihuku

G. Alexander, John E. Allison, N. Altekamp +97 more

John C. Hermanson, R. T. Robiscoe

Alec Cao, Cora J. Fujiwara, Roshan Sajjad +3 more

Abstract Exponential decay laws describe systems ranging from unstable nuclei to fluorescent molecules, in which the probability of jumping to a lower-energy state in any given time interval is static and history-independent. These decays, involving only a metastable state and fluctuations of the quantum vacuum, are the most fundamental nonequilibrium process and provide a microscopic model for the origins of irreversibility. Despite the fact that the apparently universal exponential decay law has been precisely tested in a variety of physical systems, it is a surprising truth that quantum mechanics requires that spontaneous decay processes have nonexponential time dependence at both very short and very long times. Cold-atom experiments have proven to be powerful probes of fundamental decay processes; in this article, we propose the use of Bose condensates in Floquet–Bloch bands as a probe of long-time nonexponential decay in single isolated emitters. We identify a range of parameters that should enable observation of long-time deviations and experimentally demonstrate a key element of the scheme: tunable decay between quasi-energy bands in a driven optical lattice.

David P. Vasholz

Amlan Ray, Arindam Kumar Sikdar, A. De

Precision tests of decay law of radioactive nuclei have not so far found any deviation from the exponential decay law at early time, as predicted by quantum mechanics. In this paper, we show that the quantum decoherence time (i.e. the timescale of nonexponential decay) of the quasifission or fission process should be of the order of attosecond considering the atom of the fissioning nucleus as a quantum detector. Hence, the observed decay timescale of the quasifission or fission process of even highly excited (EX greater than 50 MeV) transuranium and uraniumlike complexes should be rather long (of the order of attosecond) in spite of their very fast exponential decay timescale (of the order of zeptosecond) as measured by the nuclear techniques. Recent controversy regarding the observation of very long (of the order of attosecond ) and very short (of the order of zeptosecond ) quasifission or fission timescales for similar systems at similar excitation energies as obtained by direct techniques (crystal blocking, X ray fission fragment) and nuclear techniques could be interpreted as evidence for nonexponential decays in nuclear systems