Induced tunneling in quantum field theory: Soliton creation in collisions of highly energetic particles

2004/10/31 by D. G. Levkov, Sergey Sibiryakov, S. M. Sibiryakov · 2 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Asymmetry #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Field (mathematics) #Instanton #Limiting #Nonlinear system #Physics #Potential energy #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Rectangular potential barrier #Semiclassical physics #Soliton #Sphaleron #cond-mat.other #cond-mat.str-el #hep-ph #hep-th #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.71.025001

published as Phys.Rev. D71 (2005) 025001 · 45 pages, 9 figures; references added

openalex publication_date 2005/01/06 · arxiv created 2005/01/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We consider tunneling transitions between states separated by an energy barrier in a simple field theoretical model. We analyze the case of soliton creation induced by collisions of a few highly energetic particles. We present a semiclassical, but otherwise first principle, study of this process at all energies of colliding particles. We find that direct tunneling to the final state occurs at energies below the critical value E_c, which is slightly higher than the barrier height. Tunneling probability grows with energy in this regime. Above the critical energy, the tunneling mechanism is different. The transition proceeds through creation of a state close to the top of the potential barrier (sphaleron) and its subsequent decay. At a certain limiting energy, E_l, tunneling probability ceases to grow. At higher energies, the dominant mechanism of transition becomes the release of energy excess E\ensuremath-E_l by the emission of a few particles and then tunneling at effectively lower energy E=E_l via the limiting semiclassical configuration. The latter belongs to a class of ``real-time instantons,'' semiclassical solutions saturating the inclusive probability of tunneling from initial states with a given number of particles. We conclude that the process of collision-induced tunneling is exponentially suppressed at all energies.

Citations

• Fate of the false vacuum: Semiclassical theory
• Dynamical tunneling of bound systems through a potential barrier: Complex way to the top
• Instanton-like transitions at high energies in (1+1)-dimensional scalar models

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• Complex trajectories in chaotic dynamical tunneling
• Signatures of unstable semiclassical trajectories in tunneling