Tunneling of a composite particle: Effects of intrinsic structure

TL;DR

This paper investigates how intrinsic degrees of freedom in a composite particle can enhance tunneling probabilities, with implications for physics and astrophysics, by modeling effects of external fields and polarizability.

Contribution

It introduces simple models to analyze tunneling of composite particles with intrinsic structure, highlighting conditions that lead to tunneling enhancement.

Findings

Intrinsic degrees of freedom can increase tunneling probability.

Weak external fields or polarizability influence tunneling behavior.

Models demonstrate potential tunneling enhancement mechanisms.

Abstract

We consider simple models of tunneling of an object with intrinsic degrees of freedom. This important problem was not extensively studied until now, in spite of numerous applications in various areas of physics and astrophysics. We show possibilities of enhancement for the probability of tunneling due to the presence of intrinsic degrees of freedom split by weak external fields or by polarizability of the slow composite object.