Physicists Propose New Kind of Quantum Tunneling

KentuckyFC writes to tell us that scientists from the UK and Germany are proposing a third kind of quantum tunneling. They propose that a quantum particle is capable of changing into a pair of "virtual particles" capable of passing through a potential barrier before changing back. The supposition also provides some interesting methods of possibly testing string theory. So many interesting and useful possibilities, I guess that just means it will be debunked faster than other scientific theories.

Comments

Is real but rare

[physburn]

This won't be debunked, its true. Once you look at the feynman diagrams its obviously a possible effect. Trouble is, it will have a very low probability, at each end of the conversion possible you've got two weak force vertices, and one of the heavy 80/90 GeV/c^2 W or Z weak force carriers. So the total amplitude goes as E^2/M_w^2 g_w^4 and square that for a probablity. So for photons that might need to tunnel (optical frequencies about 1eV) you have a tunnelling probability of 10^-18, that so very rare physicists will probably never see it.

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