arxiv org pdf 2404.14382

A unified theory of tunneling times promoted by Ramsey clocks
Patrik Schach 1 and Enno Giese 1
(This article has been published in Science Advances 10, eadl6078 [2024]
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 [CC BY].)
1Technische Universit¨at Darmstadt, Fachbereich Physik, Institut f¨ur
Angewandte Physik, Schlossgartenstr. 7, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany
What time does a clock tell after quantum tunneling? Predictions and indirect measurements
range from superluminal or instantaneous tunneling to finite durations, depending on the specific
experiment and the precise definition of the elapsed time. Proposals and implementations utilize
the atomic motion to define this delay, even though the inherent quantum nature of atoms implies
a delocalization and is in sharp contrast to classical trajectories. Here, we rely on an operational
approach: we prepare atoms in a coherent superposition of internal states and study the time read
off via a Ramsey sequence after the tunneling process without the notion of classical trajectories or
velocities. Our operational framework (a) unifies definitions of tunneling delay within one approach;
(b) connects the time to a frequency standard given by a conventional atomic clock which can
be boosted by differential
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