Complex trajectories in chaotic dynamical tunneling

We develop the semiclassical method of complex trajectories in application to chaotic dynamical tunneling. First, we suggest a systematic numerical technique for obtaining complex tunneling trajectories by the gradual deformation of the classical ones. This provides a natural classification of the tunneling solutions. Second, we present a heuristic procedure for sorting out the least suppressed trajectory. As an illustration, we apply our technique to the process of chaotic tunneling in a quantum mechanical model with two degrees of freedom. Our analysis reveals rich dynamics of the system. At the classical level, there exists an infinite set of unstable solutions forming a fractal structure. This structure is inherited by the complex tunneling paths and plays the central role in the semiclassical study. The process we consider exhibits the phenomenon of optimal tunneling: the suppression exponent of the tunneling probability has a local minimum at a certain energy which is thus (locally) the optimal energy for tunneling. We test the proposed method by comparison of the semiclassical results with the results of the exact quantum computations and find a good agreement

Unstable Semiclassical Trajectories in Tunneling

Some tunneling phenomena are described, in the semiclassical approximation, by unstable complex trajectories. We develop a systematic procedure to stabilize the trajectories and to calculate the tunneling probability, including both the suppression exponent and prefactor. We find that the instability of tunneling solutions modifies the power-law dependence of the prefactor on h as compared to the case of stable solutions.Comment: Journal version; 4 pages, 2 figure

Overbarrier reflection in quantum mechanics with multiple degrees of freedom

We present an analytic example of two dimensional quantum mechanical system, where the exponential suppression of the probability of over-barrier reflection changes non-monotonically with energy. The suppression is minimal at certain "optimal" energies where reflection occurs with exponentially larger probability than at other energies

Signatures of unstable semiclassical trajectories in tunneling

It was found recently that processes of multidimensional tunneling are generally described at high energies by unstable semiclassical trajectories. We study two observational signatures related to the instability of trajectories. First, we find an additional power-law dependence of the tunneling probability on the semiclassical parameter as compared to the standard case of potential tunneling. The second signature is substantial widening of the probability distribution over final-state quantum numbers. These effects are studied using modified semiclassical technique which incorporates stabilization of the tunneling trajectories. The technique is derived from first principles. We obtain expressions for the inclusive and exclusive tunneling probabilities in the case of unstable semiclassical trajectories. We also investigate the "phase transition" between the cases of stable and unstable trajectories across certain "critical" value of energy. Finally, we derive the relation between the semiclassical probabilities of tunneling from the low-lying and highly excited initial states. This puts on firm ground a conjecture made previously in the semiclassical description of collision-induced tunneling in field theory.Comment: Journal version; 48 pages, 16 figure

Self-similar growth of Bose stars

We analytically solve the problem of Bose star growth in the bath of gravitationally interacting particles. We find that after nucleation of this object, the bath is described by a self-similar solution of the kinetic equation, which is an attractor. Together with the conservation laws, this fixes mass evolution of the Bose star. Our results explain slowdown of the star growth at a certain "core-halo" mass, but also predict formation of the heavier and lighter objects in magistral dark matter models.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure