Trajectory based non-markovian dissipative tunneling

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Dec 3;105(23):230405. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.230405. Epub 2010 Dec 3.

Abstract

The influence of a dissipative environment on scattering of a particle by a barrier is investigated by using the recently introduced bohmian mechanics with complex action [J. Chem. Phys. 125, 231103 (2006)]. An extension of this complex trajectory based formalism to include the interaction of the tunneling particle with an environment of harmonic oscillators with a continuous spectral density and at a certain finite temperature allows us to calculate transmission probabilities beyond the weak system bath coupling regime. The results display an increasing tunneling probability for energies below the barrier and a decreased transmission above the barrier due to the coupling. Furthermore, we demonstrate that solutions of a markovian master equation fail to do so in general.