Quantum tunneling in dissipative media: Intermediate-coupling-strength results

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We consider the motion of a quantum particle placed in a metastable minima of a potential well and examine the effect of interactions with the thermal reservoir at temperature T. We use the dilute, bounce approximation for the Green’s function. We find a particular value of the dissipative coupling strength for which we can solve the Euler-Lagrange equations exactly, in the range of temperatures between zero and the crossover to the regime where thermal hopping dominates. We obtain analytic expressions for the tunneling rate in this temperature regime.