Gamow Factor Derivation Applied to n1-n2 (index of refraction) Reflection-Refraction
Francesco R. Ruggeri
In (1), an outline of the derivation of the Gamow factor for alpha decay from a nucleus is given. In one dimension, the approach considers three regions in space, one with an incident and reflected free particle wavefunction, the second (within a square V barrier) with an exponentially growing and falling solution, and the third, with a single free particle wavefunction exp(-iEt)exp(ipx+phase) representing the escaped alpha particle. Alpha decay is treated as a quantum tunneling problem and the wavefunction and its first derivative d/dx must be continuous. A second step in (1), however, is to assume that one may write a time related wavefunction as exp(- g t), where d/dt partial Integral dx (region) W*W = ½ (-i W* d/dx W + i W d/dx W*). This may appear to be a quantum mechanical equation, but we argue that this is nothing more than the classical continuity equation. In fact, in (2) we argued that quantum mechanics does not exist without classical equations. In particular, the quantum free particle wavefunctions exp(-iEt) and exp(ipx) follow exp(iEt)exp(-iEt) = 1 and exp(-ipx)exp(ipx) = 1 to link them classical densities in time and space for particles moving with a constant speed. If there is a decay in time and space, then the appropriate classical equation is the continuity one. Writing d/dt partial d(t) = constant d(t) yields the familiar exp(-g t) form. We apply the ideas of the Gamow factor to a set of photons bouncing back and forth in an n1 1-dimensional cavity surrounded by n2 (n2>n1) index of refraction material. In this case, if the photons are synchronized then one may follow them classically. The catch is that the probability to reflect or refract is quantum. In general, one would not write exp(-g t) in such a scenario, but would formally write an equation of the form: fraction of remaining photons = R power Integer(t/t1), where R is the probability to reflect and integer(t/t1) is the number of cycles.. If, however, the probability to refract is very small, we show that one may in fact obtain the same result as in the case of exp(- g t) for g <<1. Alternatively, if the cavity is small in length and the speed of the particle (c in the case of light) is large, one could approximate the situation by d/dt partial d(t)= constant d(t) and then obtain exp(-g t), having the photons no longer in deterministic motion.
•Feb 20, 2026•0 citations