Decay of metastable states: Sharp transition from quantum to classical behavior

被引:73
作者
Gorokhov, DA
Blatter, G
机构
[1] Theoretische Physik, ETH-Hönggerberg
来源
PHYSICAL REVIEW B | 1997年 / 56卷 / 06期
关键词
D O I
10.1103/PhysRevB.56.3130
中图分类号
T [工业技术];
学科分类号
08 ;
摘要
The decay rate of metastable states is determined at high temperatures by thermal activation, whereas at temperatures close to zero, quantum tunneling is relevant. At some temperature T-c the transition from classical to quantum-dominated decay occurs. The transition can be first-order-like, with a discontinuous first derivative of the Euclidean action, or smooth with only a second derivative developing a jump. In the former case the crossover temperature T-c cannot be calculated perturbatively and must be found as the intersection point of the Euclidean actions calculated at low and high temperatures. In this paper we present a sufficient criterion for a first-order transition in tunneling problems and apply it to the problem of the tunneling of strings. It is shown that the problem of the depinning of a massive string from a linear defect in the presence of an arbitrarily strong dissipation exhibits a first-order transition.
引用
收藏
页码:3130 / 3139
页数:10
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