Time-dependent generator coordinate method for many-particle tunneling

• Main Authors: N. Hasegawa, K. Hagino, Y. Tanimura
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-09-01
• Series: Physics Letters B
• Subjects: Nuclear reactions; Quantum tunneling; Fusion; Fission; Density functional theory
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269320304962

It has been known that the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) method, or the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), fails to describe many-body quantum tunneling. We overcome this problem by superposing a few time-dependent Slater determinants with the time-dependent generator coordinate method (TDGCM). We apply this method to scattering of two α particles in one dimension, and demonstrate that the TDGCM method yields a finite tunneling probability even at energies below the Coulomb barrier, at which the tunneling probability is exactly zero in the TDHF. This is the first case in which a many-particle tunneling is simulated with a microscopic real-time approach.