A time-dependent perturbative analysis for a quantum particle in a cloud chamber

We consider a simple model of a cloud chamber consisting of a test particle (the alpha-particle) interacting with two other particles (the atoms of the vapour) subject to attractive potentials centered in $a_1, a_2 \in \mathbb{R}^3$. At time zero the alpha-particle is described by an outgoing spherical wave centered in the origin and the atoms are in their ground state. We show that, under suitable assumptions on the physical parameters of the system and up to second order in perturbation theory, the probability that both atoms are ionized is negligible unless $a_2$ lies on the line joining the origin with $a_1$. The work is a fully time-dependent version of the original analysis proposed by Mott in 1929.Comment: 23 page

Quasiclassical mass spectrum of the black hole model with selfgravitating dust shell

We consider a quantum mechanical black hole model introduced in {\it Phys.Rev.}, {\bf D57}, 1118 (1998) that consists of the selfgravitating dust shell. The Schroedinger equation for this model is a finite difference equation with the shift of the argument along the imaginary axis. Solving this equation in quasiclassical limit in complex domain leads to quantization conditions that define discrete quasiclassical mass spectrum. One of the quantization conditions is Bohr-Sommerfeld condition for the bound motion of the shell. The other comes from the requirement that the wave function is unambiguously defined on the Riemannian surface on which the coefficients of Schroedinger equation are regular. The second quantization condition remains valid for the unbound motion of the shell as well, and in the case of a collapsing null-dust shell leads to $m\sim\sqrt{k}$ spectrum.Comment: 35 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

From Vicious Walkers to TASEP

We propose a model of semi-vicious walkers, which interpolates between the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process and the vicious walkers model, having the two as limiting cases. For this model we calculate the asymptotics of the survival probability for $m$ particles and obtain a scaling function, which describes the transition from one limiting case to another. Then, we use a fluctuation-dissipation relation allowing us to reinterpret the result as the particle current generating function in the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process. Thus we obtain the particle current distribution asymptotically in the large time limit as the number of particles is fixed. The results apply to the large deviation scale as well as to the diffusive scale. In the latter we obtain a new universal distribution, which has a skew non-Gaussian form. For $m$ particles its asymptotic behavior is shown to be $e^{-\frac{y^{2}}{2m^{2}}}$ as $y\to -\infty$ and $e^{-\frac{y^{2}}{2m}}y^{-\frac{m(m-1)}{2}}$ as $y\to \infty$.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figures, Corrected reference