Time delay in wave packet tunneling

Abstract

The time that a transmitted particle interacts with a tunneling barrier can be analyzed by letting the particle interact with a physical clock mechanism during tunneling. Alternatively, much of the literature follows wave packets through barriers, comparing the peak, or centroid, of the transmitted packet to that of the incident packet. Earlier assertions that there is no physical causative relation between incident peaks, or centroids, and their transmitted equivalents, are reinforced by analysis of a simple example in which the transmitted packet arises primarily from the front end of the incident packet.