Analysis of non-perturbative fluctuations in a triple-well potential

Abstract

We consider the quantum tunneling phenomenon in a well-behaved triple-well potential. As required by the semiclassical approximation we take into account the quadratic fluctuations over the instanton which represents as usual the localised finite-action solution of the Euclidean equation of motion. The physical effects of the multi-instanton configurations are included in this approach. We obtain information about the energies of the ground state and the two first excited levels of the discrete spectrum at issue.