Nonexponential decay of an unstable quantum system: Small-Q-value s-wave decay

Journal Article · Fri Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2004 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.71.012109· OSTI ID:20650181

Jittoh, Toshifumi; Sato, Joe; Sato, Yoshio ^[1]; Matsumoto, Shigeki ^[2]; Takeda, Koujin ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570 (Japan)
2. Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Chiba 277-8582 (Japan)
3. Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8551 (Japan)

We study the decay process of an unstable quantum system, especially the deviation from the exponential decay law. We show that the exponential period no longer exists in the case of the s-wave decay with small Q value, where the Q value is the difference between the energy of the initially prepared state and the minimum energy of the continuous eigenstates in the system. We also derive the quantitative condition that this kind of decay process takes place and discuss what kind of system is suitable to observe the decay.

• OSTI ID: 20650181
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 71; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
DECAY
EIGENSTATES
ENERGY LEVELS
Q-VALUE
QUANTUM MECHANICS
S WAVES
TUNNEL EFFECT