Tunnelling times, Larmor clock, and the elephant in the room
Abstract 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 “oper...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89247-8 |
| _version_ | 1818682398096752640 |
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| author | D. Sokolovski E. Akhmatskaya |
| author_facet | D. Sokolovski E. Akhmatskaya |
| author_sort | D. Sokolovski |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract 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 clock. We show that the difficulty with applying a non-perturbing Larmor clock in order to “time” a classically forbidden transition arises from the quantum Uncertainty Principle. We also demonstrate that for this reason a Larmor time (in fact, any Larmor time) cannot be interpreted as a physical time interval. We provide a theoretical description of the quantities measured by the clock. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T10:18:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4b9dc978784346f88bc0230eb6dc1dd7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T10:18:12Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-4b9dc978784346f88bc0230eb6dc1dd72022-12-21T21:52:52ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222021-05-011111810.1038/s41598-021-89247-8Tunnelling times, Larmor clock, and the elephant in the roomD. Sokolovski0E. Akhmatskaya1Departmento de Química-Física, Universidad del País Vasco, UPV/EHU, 48940Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM)Abstract 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 clock. We show that the difficulty with applying a non-perturbing Larmor clock in order to “time” a classically forbidden transition arises from the quantum Uncertainty Principle. We also demonstrate that for this reason a Larmor time (in fact, any Larmor time) cannot be interpreted as a physical time interval. We provide a theoretical description of the quantities measured by the clock.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89247-8 |
| spellingShingle | D. Sokolovski E. Akhmatskaya Tunnelling times, Larmor clock, and the elephant in the room Scientific Reports |
| title | Tunnelling times, Larmor clock, and the elephant in the room |
| title_full | Tunnelling times, Larmor clock, and the elephant in the room |
| title_fullStr | Tunnelling times, Larmor clock, and the elephant in the room |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tunnelling times, Larmor clock, and the elephant in the room |
| title_short | Tunnelling times, Larmor clock, and the elephant in the room |
| title_sort | tunnelling times larmor clock and the elephant in the room |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89247-8 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dsokolovski tunnellingtimeslarmorclockandtheelephantintheroom AT eakhmatskaya tunnellingtimeslarmorclockandtheelephantintheroom |