Quantum Tunneling in Complex Systems: The Semiclassical Approach

Joachim Ankerhold (auth.)3540680748, 9783540680741, 9783540680765

In the last two decades remarkable progress has been made in understanding and describing tunneling processes in complex systems in terms of classical trajectories. This book introduces recent concepts and achievements with particular emphasis on a dynamical formulation and relations to specific systems in mesoscopic, molecular, and atomic physics. Advanced instanton techniques, e.g. for decay rates and tunnel splittings, are discussed in the first part. The second part covers current developments for wave-packet tunneling in real-time, and the third part describes thermodynamics and dynamical approaches for barrier transmission in statistical, particularly dissipative systems.

Table of contents :
Introduction….Pages 1-5
Semiclassical Approximation….Pages 7-20
Tunneling in the Energy Domain….Pages 21-60
Wave-packet Tunneling in Real-time….Pages 61-92
Tunneling in Open Systems: Thermodynamical Approaches….Pages 93-130
Tunneling in Open Systems: Dynamics….Pages 131-170
Unified Dynamical Theory -….Pages 171-201
Final Remarks and Outlook….Pages 203-205