Quantum tunneling in complex systems. The semiclassical approach. (Q870692)

Tunneling phenomena widely show up in physics. The author's aim here is to put readers in the position to understand them from a semiclassical perspective. The subject is timely, having past two decades witnessed significant advances in semiclassical methodology, and being its complete development still matter of efforts. The book consists of eight chapters, headed as follows: 1. Introduction, 2. Semiclassical Approximation, 3. Tunneling in the Energy Domain, 4. Wave-packet Tunneling in Real-time, 5. Tunneling in Open Systems: Thermodynamical approaches, 6. Tunneling in Open Systems: Dynamics, 7. Unified Dynamical Theory-From Thermal Activation to Coherent and Incoherent Tunneling, 8. Final Remarks and Outlooks. The monograph clearly starts by introducing the reader to basic tools and notions. In Chapter 2, general aspects of the WKB approximation and of semiclassical real-time propagators in energy and time domains are recalled, thus focusing on the Van Vleck Gutzwiller and Herman-Kluk (HK) propagators, on the role of classical paths and on initial value representations. In Chapter 3, the author describes the Imaginary part of the Free energy (ImF) approach for non-dissipative systems. The metastable well potential case is treated with both the WKB and the ImF methods and the respective predictions are compared. The author next considers the case of a bistable potential and shows how tunnel splitting can possibly be extracted through a path integration technique based on calculations for representative instanton paths. These theoretical issues are applied to macroscopic quantum tunneling phenomena for superconductor based devices (Josephson junctions, SQUIDs) and Bose-Einstein condensates. The author concludes the chapter with tunneling in higher-dimensional systems, thus mentioning questions concerned with tunneling among chaotic states and chaos assisted tunneling. Chapter 4 is about time-dependent systems and the capability of semiclassical techniques to capture tunneling events in the time-domain. The problem includes the very common situation where external time-dependent fields are introduced to control the time evolution of systems, for instance. Capturing deep tunneling by higher order phase-space integration requires a improvement of the HK technique. Complex plane dynamics for reactive scattering and metastable barrier is thus studied, leading to the observation that a guideline can be followed by incorporating contributions for quasi stationary fluctuations into the HK space-phase integrand as additional action and phase factors. The author finally shows how a representation of the quantum propagator in terms of an asymptotic initial value representation series, with the HK propagator as the leading order contribution, can actually be obtained. Subsequently, thermodynamical and nonequilibrium approaches for barrier transmission in dissipative systems are examined. Chapter 5 starts with a brief survey of the main results of classical Kramers' rate theory. The extension of the standard ImF method formulation to cover time-dependent systems is then outlined. A section follows which is devoted to tunneling processes occurring between discrete spin states of nanomagnets, when an external magnetic field is applied and dissipation is introduced through environmental degrees of freedom. Dissipative tunneling in bistable potentials and centroid theory are also summarized. The generalization of Kramer's theory to the quantum domain, with the conditions for temperature and friction imposed by the validity of the harmonic approximation, opens Chapter 6. Results are applied to a Drude model with exponential damping, and to nuclear fission. In the second part of the chapter the author develops a quantum analog of the classical Smoluchowski equation for marginal distribution in position space and discusses its application in connection with transfer of Cooper pairs through Josephson junctions in low impedance environments. Chapter 7 completes the book's picture with respect to the dynamical theory of escape processes. The findings in Ch. 4 for wave-packet tunneling in real-time are generalized to the time evolution of ensembles. The real-time description for barrier penetration of Ch. 6 is extended to the low temperature range and conditions for the applicability of the thermodynamic methods are derived. The book provides a modern survey on semiclassical methods to describe tunneling phenomena for both individual wave packets and ensembles described by density matrices. It is well written and includes discussions of physical examples having very different typical length scales and with temperatures varying from high to low values. The author has the merit of a clear and effective presentation of arguments, where both ideas behind mathematical tools and physical meaning of results are elucidated. The monograph can be appreciated by expert and less expert readers, and can be suggested as a basic reference for tunneling processes.