Resonant-state expansions and the long-time behavior of quantum decay

Abstract

It is shown that a representation of the decaying wave function as a resonant sum plus a nonexponential integral term may be written as a purely discrete resonant sum by evaluating at long times the integral term by the steepest descents method, and then expanding the resulting expression in terms of resonant states. This leads to a representation that is valid along the exponential and the inverse power in time regimes. A model calculation using the $\ensuremath{\delta}$ potential allows us to make a comparison of the expansion with numerical integrations in terms of continuum wave functions and, in the long time regime, with an exact analytic expression of the integral term obtained using the steepest descents method. The results demonstrate that resonant states give a correct description of the long-time behavior of decay.