Tunneling in asymmetric double‐well potentials

Methods previously developed for the case of a symmetric double‐well potential are here extended to study tunneling in an asymmetric, piecewise harmonic, double‐well potential. The approach involves the decomposition of the real stationary states into complex right‐ and left‐moving states and the determination of exact transmission coefficients for the latter. Numerical solutions for a selection of representative parameter values are obtained for the time evolution of states which correspond initially to a Gaussian wave packet localized in the upper well. Both resonant and nonresonant cases are studied and the significance of the transmission coefficient is established for each.

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