Lecture 10: More on WKB approximation: Quantum Tunneling

Virtual experiments of quantum tunneling from a website developed by Physics Nobel Laureate Wiemann (Univ. Colorado UBC, Vancouver)

http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/sims.php?sim=Qu antum_Tunneling_and_Wave_Packets

Note: Tunneling phenomenon is still not fully understood. For example, exactly how much time does a particle spend under a barrier? (Or is this a wrong question in the first place?)

Extending earlier WKB treatment to the nonclassical regime

where

Examples: (i) if V(x) is a constant, then the solution should be

(ii) If V(x) varies slowly, then we expect

Obtaining the following general WKB solution in the non-classical regime (using the same hbar expansion technique as we did before)

Recall:

with

So basically,

Classically allowed regime

Classically disallowed regime

A and B are also determined by boundary conditions or connection formula

Transmission coefficient from WKB:

V(x)

Intuitive arguments and main result:

If the wall is infinitely wide, then the second term of should have coefficient zero because otherwise it blows up.
As such, if the wall is wide enough, the second term is unimportant (intuitively, it is connected with reflection from the right edge)

Transmission coefficient T is then roughly given by

working out all details of the connections formula we have

A more rigorous analysis using also the connection formula gives

Caution:
Exactly within the right turning point regime, the term with coefficient B would be of similar order of magnitude as the term with coefficient A. So it becomes problematic to drop the B term there. But there is no worry, with the understanding that we do not literally push the WKB solution to the neighborhood of the right turning point. The actual behavior around the turning point can be exactly solved without using the WKB.

How good is the WKB transmission

V(x)
where Am I ??

coefficient for an exactly solvable problem

exact results:

quantum tunneling through a square well potential

Our WKB result:

Applications in Gamows theory of alpha decay V(r)

Coulomb repulsion E

r1 r 2

nuclear binding due to strong interaction

Continued on the next slide

Continuing the previous slide

The exponent that determines the WKB tunneling is

Further using

where

Note that

so a small change in

may cause huge differences in the transmission rate T !

Lifetime associated with alpha decay

Decay rate = (collision rate) X (tunneling trans. coefficient)

A little more calculation:

(Since r1 is very small)

The transmission coefficient is then given by:

where

What about nuclear fusion rate using WKB? Yes, also doable ! V(r)

Coulomb repulsion E We can use the same model to estimate fusion rates via WKB

r1

r2

nuclear binding due to strong interaction

Enhancing nuclear fusion rates by molecular cages?

C20

C24

Hydrogen molecular ions placed in small fullerene cages

A 40% reduction in the turning point r 2 can lead to an enhancement factor of

From Segal et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 420, 241-244 (2006).

Summarizing WKB approximations

In the classically allowed energy region, WKB approximation can yield a very useful quantization rule for approximate calculations of the energy levels. We skipped some technical details about how to fix the WKB solutions at the classical turning points. But the principle is simple: to match the WKB solution with the exact solution around the turning points. Extending to the classically disallowed region, we showed that WKB solutions can be used to estimate quantum tunneling probabilities (especially its exponential dependence on scattering energy, potential width etc.). We also applied WKB to understand alpha-decay rates and nuclear fusion rates.