Quantum Breaking of Elastic String

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Abstract
Breaking of an atomic chain under stress is a collective many-particle tunneling phenomenon. We study classical dynamics in imaginary time by using a conformal mapping technique, and derive an analytic formula for the probability of breaking. The result covers a broad temperature interval and interpolates between two regimes: tunneling and thermal activation. Also, we consider the breaking induced by an ultrasonic wave propagating in the chain, and propose to observe it in a scanning tunneling microscopy experiment.

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