Tunnelling necessitates negative Wigner function

We use an one dimensional model of a square barrier embedded in an infinite potential well to demonstrate that tunneling leads to a complex behavior of the wave function and that the degree of complexity may be quantified by use of the spatial entropy function defined by S = -\int |\Psi(x,t)|^2 ln |\Psi(x,t)|^2 dx. There is no classical counterpart to tunneling, but a decrease in the tunneling in a short time interval may be interpreted as an approach of a quantum system to a...

The new method for the simulation of nonstationary quantum processes is proposed. The method is based on the tomography representation of quantum mechanics, {\it i.e.}, the state of the system is described by the {\it nonnegative} function (quantum tomogram). In the framework of the method one uses the ensemble of trajectories in the tomographic space to represent evolution of the system (therefore direct calculation of the quantum tomogram is avoided). To illustrate the meth...

We study the possibility of giving a classical interpretation to quantum projective measurements for a particle described by a pure Gaussian state whose Wigner function is non-negative. We analyze the case of a projective measurement which gives rise to a proper Wigner function, i.e., taking on, as its values, the eigenvalues of the projector. We find that, despite having this property, this kind of projector produces a state whose Wigner function ceases to be non-negative an...

In the deformed quantum mechanics with a minimal length, one WKB connection formula through a turning point is derived. We then use it to calculate tunnelling rates through potential barriers under the WKB approximation. Finally, the minimal length effects on two examples of quantum tunneling in nuclear and atomic physics are discussed

The complex-time formalism is developed in the framework of the path-integral formalism, to be used for analysis of the quantum tunneling phenomena. We show that subleading complex-time saddle-points do not account for the right WKB result. Instead, we develop a reduction formula, which enables us to construct Green functions from simple components of the potential, for which saddle-point method is applicable. This method leads us to the valid WKB result, which incorporates i...

Using a time operator, we define a tunneling time for a particle going through a barrier. This tunneling time is the average of the phase time introduced by other authors. In addition to the delay time caused by the resonances over the barrier, the present tunneling time is also affected by the branch point at the edge of the energy continuum. We find that when the particle energy is near the branch point, the tunneling time becomes strongly dependent on the width of the inco...

We present a pedagogical description of the inversion of Gamow's tunnelling formula and we compare it with the corresponding classical problem. We also discuss the issue of uniqueness in the solution and the result is compared with that obtained by the method of Gel'fand and Levitan. We hope that the article will be a valuable source to students who have studied classical mechanics and have some familiarity with quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics predicts an exponentially small probability that a particle with energy greater than the height of a potential barrier will nevertheless reflect from the barrier in violation of classical expectations. This process can be regarded as tunneling in momentum space, leading to a simple derivation of the reflection probability.

A controversy surrounding the "tunnelling time problem" stems from the seeming inability of quantum mechanics to provide, in the usual way, a definition of the duration a particle is supposed to spend in a given region of space. For this reason the problem is often approached from an "operational" angle. Typically, one tries to mimic, in a quantum case, an experiment which yields the desired result for a classical particle. One such approach is based on the use of a Larmor cl...

The complex-time method for quantum tunneling is studied. In one-dimensional quantum mechanics, we construct a reduction formula for a Green function in the number of turning points based on the WKB approximation. This formula yields a series, which can be interpreted as a sum over the complex-time paths. The weights of the paths are determined.