Complex tunneling dynamics

Ángel S. Sanz, Salvador Miret-Artés

D. G. Levkov, A. G. Panin, Sergey M. Sibiryakov

We develop the semiclassical method of complex trajectories in application to chaotic dynamical tunneling. First, we suggest a systematic numerical technique for obtaining complex tunneling trajectories by the gradual deformation of the classical ones. This provides a natural classification of the tunneling solutions. Second, we present a heuristic procedure for sorting out the least suppressed trajectory. As an illustration, we apply our technique to the process of chaotic tunneling in a quantum mechanical model with two degrees of freedom. Our analysis reveals rich dynamics of the system. At the classical level, there exists an infinite set of unstable solutions forming a fractal structure. This structure is inherited by the complex tunneling paths and plays a central role in the semiclassical study. The process we consider exhibits the phenomenon of optimal tunneling: the suppression exponent of the tunneling probability has a local minimum at a certain energy which is thus (locally) the optimal energy for tunneling. We test the proposed method by comparison of the semiclassical results with the results of the exact quantum computations and find a good agreement.

G. Dekel, O. V. Farberovich, Avy Soffer +1 more

Jérémy Le Deunff, Amaury Mouchet

Starting from trace formulae for the tunnelling splittings (or decay rates) analytically continued in the complex time domain, we obtain explicit semiclassical expansions in terms of complex trajectories that are selected with appropriate complex-time paths. We show how this instanton-like approach, which takes advantage of an incomplete Wick rotation, accurately reproduces tunnelling effects not only in the usual double-well potential but also in situations where a pure Wick rotation is insufficient, for instance dynamical tunnelling or resonant tunnelling. Even though only one-dimensional autonomous Hamiltonian systems are quantitatively studied, we discuss the relevance of our method for multidimensional and/or chaotic tunnelling.

重貴 松本

Jérémy Le Deunff, Amaury Mouchet

Starting from trace formulas for the tunneling splittings (or decay rates) analytically continued in the complex time domain, we obtain explicit semiclassical expansions in terms of complex trajectories that are selected with appropriate complex-time paths. We show how this instantonlike approach, which takes advantage of an incomplete Wick rotation, accurately reproduces tunneling effects not only in the usual double-well potential but also in situations where a pure Wick rotation is insufficient, for instance dynamical tunneling or resonant tunneling. Even though only one-dimensional autonomous Hamiltonian systems are quantitatively studied, we discuss the relevance of our method for multidimensional and/or chaotic tunneling.