Abstract
A quantum system which can tunnel, at , out of a metastable state and whose interaction with its environment is adequately described in the classically accessible region by a phenomenological friction coefficient , is considered. By only assuming that the environment response is linear, it is found that dissipation multiplies the tunneling probability by the factor , where is the "distance under the barrier" and is a numerical factor which is generally of order unity.
- Received 28 July 1980
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.46.211
©1981 American Physical Society