The tunnel effect, commonly defined as the phenomenon in which a microparticle overcomes a potential barrier that exceeds its total energy, is often cited in quantum mechanics. However, this effect does not actually occur in its described form in nature, and the quantum mechanical interpretation of tunneling does not accurately represent the real physical processes involved, but rather provides a mathematical model. The true physical mechanism of the tunnel effect remains unidentified. An analysis of the tunnel effect reveals that its manifestation creates a “paradox” in classical physics. Explanations based on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the wave nature of particles fail to offer a comprehensive understanding of the actual physical process.This study proposes a new explanation of the tunneling phenomenon based on the principles of classical physics and electrodynamics. It is shown that the overcoming of the Coulomb barrier by low-energy microparticles occurs exclusively due to brief localized decreases in potential within the Coulomb barrier, allowing certain charged microparticles to penetrate. The formation mechanism of these short-lived localized regions, which manifest as volume channels with lower potential within the Coulomb barrier, is examined.It is established that the creation of these channels is linked to the properties of atomic nuclear and their associated electric fields. This facilitates the supra barrier penetration of the Coulomb barrier by individual low-energy microparticles that pass through these channels while experiencing a reduction in their total energy. This explanation resolves the “paradox” of the tunneling effect, eliminating the contradiction with classical physics laws.Moreover, the derived estimates of the tunneling process parameters are in qualitative agreement with the results obtained from quantum-mechanical models. The proposed framework aligns with nuclear physics findings, is supported by experimental evidence, and provides a new mechanism for controlling the tunneling effect in various energy-related applications.
The tunnel effect, commonly defined as the phenomenon in which a microparticle overcomes a potential barrier that exceeds its total energy, is often cited in quantum mechanics. However, this effect does not actually occur in its described form in nature, and the quantum mechanical interpretation of tunneling does not accurately represent the real physical processes involved, but rather provides a mathematical model. The true physical mechanism of the tunnel effect remains unidentified. An analysis of the tunnel effect reveals that its manifestation creates a “paradox” in classical physics. Explanations based on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the wave nature of particles fail to offer a comprehensive understanding of the actual physical process.This study proposes a new explanation of the tunneling phenomenon based on the principles of classical physics and electrodynamics. It is shown that the overcoming of the Coulomb barrier by low-energy microparticles occurs exclusively due to brief localized decreases in potential within the Coulomb barrier, allowing certain charged microparticles to penetrate. The formation mechanism of these short-lived localized regions, which manifest as volume channels with lower potential within the Coulomb barrier, is examined.It is established that the creation of these channels is linked to the properties of atomic nuclear and their associated electric fields. This facilitates the supra barrier penetration of the Coulomb barrier by individual low-energy microparticles that pass through these channels while experiencing a reduction in their total energy. This explanation resolves the “paradox” of the tunneling effect, eliminating the contradiction with classical physics laws.Moreover, the derived estimates of the tunneling process parameters are in qualitative agreement with the results obtained from quantum-mechanical models. The proposed framework aligns with nuclear physics findings, is supported by experimental evidence, and provides a new mechanism for controlling the tunneling effect in various energy-related applications.
The quantum tunneling phenomenon has long been explained by quantum mechanics using abstract concepts such as probability waves and wave function collapse. However, the essence of its microscopic physical mechanism—how and why a particle can traverse a classically forbidden region—has never been clearly elucidated, leading to a schism between the physical laws governing the micro- and macro-worlds. Based on the Great Tao Model and the Unified Theory of Atomic and Molecular Structure, this paper, for the first time, constructs a complete, self-consistent, and quantifiable framework for a classical physical explanation. The core of this framework clarifies the microscopic physical mechanisms of "local weakening of the Existence Field" and "formation of a directional field channel", reducing the tunneling process to a deterministic sequence of events: "information coupling → field weakening → channel formation → classical penetration". The study rigorously derives the quantitative relationships between the field strength weakening coefficient, the field channel width, and the penetration probability. Its mathematical form is compatible with the empirical formula of quantum mechanics, but its physical connotation is fundamentally different. Case studies demonstrate that this theory can uniformly explain the atomic-scale resolution of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), the deterministic energy release in α-decay, and the physical necessity for the impossibility of macroscopic object tunneling. Starting from the first principles of classical physics, this paper provides a new paradigm for understanding tunneling that aligns with physical intuition, has a clear mechanism, and is subject to experimental verification, achieving a logical unification of micro- and macro-physical laws.
This paper proposes a classical alternative explanation for the tunneling effect in quantum mechanics. Standard quantum theory describes tunneling as a particle "penetrating" a potential barrier whose energy exceeds the particle's own kinetic energy with a certain probability. However, this explanation focuses only on the mathematical initial and final states, completely ignoring any dynamical process the electron may undergo before the barrier, and lacks a physical picture. This paper argues that tunneling is not an intrinsic quantum property of a single electron, but rather a collective statistical fluctuation event involving multiple electrons: electrons near the barrier, through a series of random collisions in the correct direction, gradually transfer and concentrate kinetic energy onto the electron closest to the barrier, enabling it to instantaneously acquire kinetic energy exceeding the barrier threshold and thus classically fly over the barrier. During the crossing, the electron must do work against the barrier, converting kinetic energy into potential energy; therefore, after crossing, its kinetic energy is reduced and it cannot cross the same barrier again. Tunneling probability is reinterpreted as the success probability of such a "directed energy relay" event. This model is fully self-consistent within the framework of classical electromagnetism and statistical mechanics, requiring no wave functions or probability waves, with a clear physical picture and explicit causal chain. This paper further points out that under strictly single-electron conditions, this model predicts that tunneling will completely disappear, a prediction that stands in fundamental opposition to the standard quantum model and can serve as a decisive experiment to test the two theories.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the establishment of quantum theory propelled rapid advancements, particularly in the understanding of quantum tunnelling—a fundamental phenomenon in quantum mechanics crucial for various physical processes. The quantum phenomenon of particle passes through potential barriers is of great importance. In classical physics, when the energy of a particle is less than the height of a double barrier structure, it is impossible for it to pass through. However, quantum mechanics allows a particle to penetrate the barrier and emerge on the other side. This paper explores the quantum tunnelling effect, focusing on the single potential barrier model in one dimension and subsequently extending to the double potential barrier model. The Schrödinger equation provides the foundational framework for elucidating the motion of microscopic particles, emphasizing wave-particle duality inherent in quantum mechanics. The analysis of the single potential barrier model involves solving the Schrödinger equation in different regions, determining wave functions and coefficients through boundary conditions. The transmission coefficient is derived, representing the probability of a particle passing through a barrier. In the case of a “thick” barrier, an approximate form for transmission coefficient is provided, demonstrating the exponential decrease in transmission probability with increasing barrier thickness.
This article provides a comprehensive review of the quantum tunneling effect, one of the most important phenomena in quantum mechanics. According to the laws of classical physics, a particle cannot overcome a potential barrier if it has insufficient energy. However, in quantum mechanics, due to the wave nature of the particle, the probability of penetrating the barrier is non-zero. This work analyzes in detail the theoretical foundations of the tunneling effect, its description via the Schrödinger equation, probability amplitudes, boundary conditions for wave functions, and their physical meaning. Furthermore, the application of this effect in semiconductor physics, nuclear physics, scanning tunneling microscopy, and nanotechnology is discussed. Based on the work of Kazakh scientists, the place and significance of the tunneling effect in modern physics are determined. The research results provide a deeper understanding of quantum phenomena and promote the development of their practical applications.
N 1923, during the infancy of the quantum theory, de Broglie [ 11 introducted a new fundamental hypothesis that matter may be endowed with a dualistic natureparticles may also have the characteristics of waves. This hypothesis, in the hands of Schrodinger [2] found expression in the definite form now known as the Schrodinger wave equation, whereby an electron or a particle is assumed to be represented by a solution to this equation. The continuous nonzero nature of such solutions, even in classically forbidden regions of negative kinetic energy, implies an ability to penetrate such forbidden regions and a probability of tunneling from one classically allowed region to another. The concept of tunneling, indeed, arises from this quantum-mechanical result. The subsequent experimental manifestations of this concept can be regarded as one of the early triumphs of the quantum theory. In 1928, theoretical physicists believed that tunneling could occur by the distortion, lowering or thinning, of a potential barrier under an externally applied high electric field. Oppenheimer [3] attributed the autoionization of excited states of atomic hydrogen to the tunnel effect: The coulombic potential well which binds an atomic electron could be distorted by a strong electric field so that the electron would see a finite potential barrier through which it could tunnel. Fowler and Nordheim [4] explained, on the basis of electron tunneling, the main features of the phenomenon of electron emission from cold metals by high external electric fields, which had been unexplained since its observation by Lilienfeld [SI in 1922. They proposed a one-dimensional model. Metal electrons are confined by a potential wall whose height is determined by the work function 9 plus the Fermi energy E/, and the wall thickness is substantially decreased with an externally applied high electric field, allowing electrons to tunnel through the potential wall, as shown in Fig. 1. They successfully derived the well-known Fowler-Nordheim formula for the current as a function of electric field F: J = AF* exp [-4(2nr)1'*t$a'*/3kF]. An application of these ideas which followed almost immediately came in the model for a decay as a tunneling process put forth by Gamow [6] and Gurney and Condon [7]. Subsequently, Rice [8] extended this theory to the description of molecular dissociation. The next important development was an attempt to invoke tunneling in order to understand transport properties of electrical contacts between two solid conductors. The problems of metal-to-metal and semiconductor-to-metal contacts are important technically, because they are directly related to electrical switches and rectifiers or detectors.
Tunneling is a supreme quantum effect. Every introductory text [1] on quantum mechanics gives the paradigm example of a particle tunneling through a one-dimensional potential barrier despite having a total energy less than the barrier height. Indeed, the reader typically works through a number of exercises, all involving one-dimensional potential barriers of one form or another modeling several key physical phenomena ranging from atom transfer reactions to the decay of α-particles [2]. However, one seldom encounters coupled multidimenisonal tunneling in such texts since an analytical solution of the Schro¨dinger equation in such cases is not possible. Interestingly, the richness and complexity of the tunneling phenomenon manifest themselves in full glory in the case of multidimensional systems [3]. Thus, for instance, the usual one-dimensional expectation of increasing tunneling splittings as one approaches the barrier top from below is not necessarily true as soon as one couples another bound degree of freedom to the tunneling coordinate. In the context of molecular reaction dynamics, multidimensional tunneling can result in strong mode-specificity and fluctuations in the reaction rates [4]. In fact, a proper description of tunneling of electrons and hydrogen atoms is absolutely essential [5,6] even in molecular systems as large as enzymes and proteins. Although one usually assumes tunneling effects to be significant in molecules involving light atom transfers, it is worth pointing out that neglecting the tunneling of even a heavy atom like carbon is the difference between a reaction occurring or not occurring. In particular, one can underestimate rates by nearly hundred orders of magnitude [7]. Interestingly, and perhaps paradoxically, several penetrating insights into the nature and mechanism of multidimensional barrier tunneling have been obtained from a phase-space perspective [8,9]. The contributions by Creagh, Shudo and Ikeda, and Takahashi in the present volume provide a detailed account of the latest advances in the phasespace-based understanding of multidimensional barrier tunneling.