Question: Consider the harmonic oscillator potential perturbed by a small cubic term, so that x3 V(x) = =ma(x - ) If a is a large

Consider the harmonic oscillator potential perturbed by a small cubic term, so

Consider the harmonic oscillator potential perturbed by a small cubic term, so that x3 V(x) = =ma(x - ) If a is a large compared to the characteristic dimension (h/mw)/2, the states will all be metastable, since there can be no lowest energy state (as x 0, the energy gets arbitrarily negative). Estimate the probability of tunneling from the ground state to the region on the far right.

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To estimate the probability of tunneling from the ground state of a perturbed harmonic oscillator you need to use the semiclassical or WKB approximati... View full answer

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