Tunnelling in a one-dimensional double-well system with five turning points can be considered as one of the simplest models for a unimolecular chemical reaction. It is assumed that a potential barrier separating reactants from products is sufficiently high, so that the reaction rate constant decreases exponentially. The height of the second potential barrier is related to the widths of the energy levels in a product well imitating relaxation processes of reaction products. An analytical expression is derived for the width of an initial energy level in a reactant well. It depends exponentially on the value of 2W 1 (W 1 is a quasiclassical phase integral under the potential barrier separating reactants from products). The preexponential factor is expressed in terms of matrix elements of the propagator connecting solutions of the Schrödinger equation in asymptotic regions. Quantum and quasiclassical calculations of the propagator were performed. Under resonance conditions, when reactant and product energy levels coincide, the width of a reactant level is shown to be 4 exp 2W 2 times as large as its value in the absence of the resonance (W 2 is a quasiclassical phase integral under the second potential barrier).
Tunnelling in a one-dimensional double-well system with five turning points can be considered as one of the simplest models for a unimolecular chemical reaction. It is assumed that a potential barrier separating reactants from products is sufficiently high, so that the reaction rate constant decreases exponentially. The height of the second potential barrier is related to the widths of the energy levels in a product well imitating relaxation processes of reaction products. An analytical expression is derived for the width of an initial energy level in a reactant well. It depends exponentially on the value of 2W 1 (W 1 is a quasiclassical phase integral under the potential barrier separating reactants from products). The preexponential factor is expressed in terms of matrix elements of the propagator connecting solutions of the Schrödinger equation in asymptotic regions. Quantum and quasiclassical calculations of the propagator were performed. Under resonance conditions, when reactant and product energy levels coincide, the width of a reactant level is shown to be 4 exp 2W 2 times as large as its value in the absence of the resonance (W 2 is a quasiclassical phase integral under the second potential barrier).
They have analytically tested several quantum transitions in molecular dynamics. In addition, they have introduced applications of theoretical formalism in physics to economics. First, they have completed the semiclassical theory of nonadiabatic transitions in the exponential potential model. They treated a two-state quantum system, which commonly appears as a subsystem in many-state problems. They were concerned with one-dimensional Schroedinger equation, although the type or semiclassical approach which they used can be applied to higher-dimension potential surfaces by means of Fourier transform. In particular, they solved the case of repulsive exponentially growing potentials, that is the forward-back scattering. They re-expressed the nonadiabatic transition matrix, which describes the transition between the two states for one-direction passage, in terms of contour integrals in the complex coordinate plane. The integrands are adiabatic momenta derived from the eigenvalues of potential matrix. Such type of concept has the advantage that it can be applied to other models than just the exponential potential model. Based on this, they have obtained an analytical tool for describing one-transition point class of potential curve systems. Examples are Rosen-Zener-Demkov model and Landau-Zener-Stueckelberg model. The formalism, which they contributed to, is useful in describing physical processes such as the charge transfer, and it is suitable for shaping external fields or modulating their frequencies in order to achieve a desired state or a product with the theoretical 100% probability. Second, they have derived the first exact analytical solution for a diabatically avoided crossing model. The physical system is described with one-dimensional coupled potential well and barrier which do not intersect in the whole coordinate range. On the basis of special mathematical functions they derived the complete quantum mechanical solution for the wave functions and the transmission coefficient. They also analyzed this model semiclassically and compared it with the exact results. This comparison yields interesting implications on the validity and accuracy of semiclassical approximation. In particular, they solved the case of dramatically avoided crossing with exponentially steep potential curves, and obtained the probability of one-way passage through the interaction region. The overall behavior corresponds to the probability of tunneling through the single potential barrier. In addition, there are complete reflection resonances at discrete energies, resulting from the trapping of a wave in the potential well. The formalism of diabatically avoided crossing model is useful in laser control of molecular reactions. This is because the potential energy curves in realistic molecular systems can be shifted by the photon energy; the curves are coupled by the field intensity via the dipole moment. That is why the new topology of potential energy curves, which was so far broadly omitted, becomes practically interesting due to the development in lasers techniques. Third, they treated several two-state quantum systems common in molecular physics. The semiclassical conditions for the complete transmission and the complete reflection in one-dimensional scattering were given analytically. They discovered the possibility of these phenomena in energy ranges in which the complete reflection or the complete transmission are not commonly expected to occur. In particular, they have made use of the broadly shared assumption that the transitions between the states are localized phenomena. This enables them to separate the whole coordinate region into distinct subsets and to analyze the physics in each subset separately. Applying this approach, they obtained a fully algebraic problem, which can be treated e.g. by diagrammatic techniques. Let them also mention that the complete transmission or complete reflection conditions simplify the wave function, and hence the mathematical solution. The formalism which they used while deriving the semiclassical conditions for the resonant phenomena mentioned above can be further generalized. This will probably yield a whole spectrum of tools in the laser control of molecular processes. Fourth, they developed a powerful technique for solving integral equations with singular kernel. One of the physical formulations of scattering is the time-independent approach based on the Lippmann-Schwinger equation for the Green operator. They have developed a detailed technique how to treat the singularity in this equation. In particular, any scattering problem can be divided into two parts. The first one is the geometry of the system and the static interaction of its components. The second one is more dynamical: the singular equation for the Green operator including the variable energy of the scattering. They fix the most costly calculations in the static part. Then they solve the singularity analytically and thus obtain the cross section as a function of energy. The so far common approach is quite opposite: to fix the singularity first and then to recalculate heavily all the static part for any new value of energy. Obviously, their approach saves a considerable amount of computational time; therefore it is a good standpoint for treating large systems. The formalism above was proved to be extremely efficient taking the example of dissociative recombination H2+ + e- → H + H* because this is a diatomic system, quantum chemical data are easily available in the literature and they could demonstrate the superiority of their approach to the other approaches. Fifth, they suggested applications of basic physical concepts to economics. They introduced aggregate quantities in financial markets and interpreted these quantities as potential energy surfaces. They also formalized interactions between cyclic processes in terms of state to state transitions. Summarizing, they treated the exponential potential model of nonadiabatic transitions, introduced a new exactly solvable model of diabatically avoided crossing, discussed the semiclassical conditions for complete transmission and complete reflection from the viewpoint of laser control, contributed to scattering calculations, and introduced some interdisciplinary applications.
In the second part of this paper on micro-canonical ensemble a new numerical approach for consideration of quantum dynamics and calculations of the average values of quantum operators and time correlation functions in the Wigner representation of quantum statistical mechanics has been developed. The time correlation functions have been presented in the form of the integral of the Weyl's symbol of the considered operators and the Fourier transform of the product of matrix elements of the dynamic propagators. For the latter function the integral Wigner–Liouville's type equation has been derived. The initial condition for this equation has been obtained in the form of the Fourier transform of the Wiener path integral representation of the matrix elements of the propagators at initial time. A numerical procedure for solving this equation combining both molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo methods has been developed. Numerical results have been obtained for series of average values of the quantum operators as well as for the time correlation function characterizing the energy level structure, the momentum flow of tunnelling particles at barrier crossing and the absorption spectra of electrons in a potential well. The developed quantum dynamics method was tested by comparison of numerical results with analytical estimations. Tunnelling transitions and the effect of the quasi stationary state have been considered as the reasons for the peculiarities in behaviour of the time correlation functions and position and momentum dispersions. The possibility of applying the developed approach to the theory of classical wave propagation in random media has also been considered. For classical waves some results have been obtained for Gaussian beam propagation in 2D and 3D waveguides.
Abstract The tunneling of a hydrogen atom through the barrier of a three‐dimensional double‐well potential is considered. From the time‐dependent Schrödinger equation, expressions are derived for the ensemble‐averaged probability density and for the probability that the hydrogen atom is in the reactant region, in the barrier region, or in the product region. It is found that when thermal vibrations are not taken into account, the ensemble‐averaged probability density may oscillate with time about its equilibrium value. When thermal vibrations are included, the oscillations become damped and the probability density approaches equilibrium. The tunneling rate is found to decrease considerably for increasing barrier thickness and barrier height.
For a model 1d asymmetric double-well potential we calculated so-called survival probability (i.e. the probability for a particle initially localised in one well to remain there). We use a semiclassical (WKB) solution of Schroedinger equation. It is shown that behaviour essentially depends on transition probability, and on dimensionless parameter which is a ratio of characteristic frequencies for low energy non-linear in-well oscillations and inter wells tunnelling. For the potential describing a finite motion (double-well) one has always a regular behaviour. For the small value of the parameter there is well defined resonance pairs of levels and the survival probability has coherent oscillations related to resonance splitting. However for the large value of the parameter no oscillations at all for the survival probability, and there is almost an exponential decay with the characteristic time determined by Fermi golden rule. In this case one may not restrict oneself to only resonance pair levels. The number of perturbed by tunnelling levels grows proportionally to the value of this parameter (by other words instead of isolated pairs there appear the resonance regions containing the sets of strongly coupled levels). In the region of intermediate values of the parameter one has a crossover between both limiting cases, namely the exponential decay with subsequent long period recurrent behaviour.
In the case of tunneling in chemical reactions [see figure1.1(c)], the total energy of reagents cannot be generally considered to be small; treating it as the first-order term of h¯ as was successfully done in Chapters 6 and 7 does not lead to any sensible semiclassical theory. The semiclassical mechanics requires (1) construction of Lagrange manifolds, (2) determination of amultidimensional caustic surface, and (3) connection of wave functions between classically allowed and forbidden regions [59]. Unfortunately, these problems have not yet been solved mathematically. As was discussed in Section 3.1, in the framework of the ordinary WKB approach we can construct Lagrange manifolds and caustics in the case of two dimensions and the connection problem can be treated relatively well by assuming the local separability. Extension of this method to higher dimensions, however, cannot be practical. The complexvalued (complex coordinate and/or momentum) WKB theory has been devised, as briefly explained there, but cannot be simply extended to multidimensions (see, for instance, [15]). This formidable task can hardly be accomplished mainly because of the complexity of the Lagrange manifold and the fact that analytical properties of any realistic potential energy surfaces extended into the complex-valued coordinate space cannot be guaranteed. The use of a complex trajectory was nicely materialized by the double-ended complex trajectory in the classical S-matrix theory [206], in which the quantized boundary conditions are satisfied at both (initial and final) ends. Unfortunately, this method turned out not to be practically useful, because finding such trajectories is also a formidable task in a multidimensional complex coordinate (and/or momentum) space. We can, however, make a break through the difficulty of detecting caustics in multidimensional space. An efficient way of doing that has been devised along classical trajectory [47]. This is not a trivial task at all, since it is not possible to find caustics in high-dimensional space by just shooting classical trajectories. Since the caustics can be found along each classical trajectory, chemical dynamics with tunneling effects incorporated can now be treated by the on-the-fly method. In this subsection, this method is explained.
We investigate coherent and incoherent tunneling phenomena in conditions of crossing diabatic potentials. We consider a model of two crossing parabolic diabatic potentials with an independent of coordinates constant adiabatic coupling. As a result of the coupling and level crossing avoiding, we get the asymmetric double-well lower adiabatic potential with a variable shape. We show that the doublet structure of levels (generic for double-well potentials) is remained valid as long as the transition matrix element is smaller than characteristic inter-level spacings (the latter ones in own turn decrease upon increasing of a difference between the diabatic potential minima). In the adiabatic limit the tunneling transitions do not depend on the upper potential. In the over-barrier energy region there is an oscillating behavior due to the resonances between the states in the lower and in the upper adiabatic potentials. A new phenomenom emanated from this oscillating dependence namely, multiple coherent - incoherent regime transitions for the upper adiabatic potential state evolution, is our main concern in this paper. The problem is not only of intellectual interest but also of relevance to various molecular systems undergoing conversion of electronic states or isomerization reactions. Our model exhausts all cases practically relevant for spectroscopy of non-rigid molecules, and can capture many of the features exhibited by experiment.