Semiclassical transition probabilities for interacting oscillators Original Research Article

Semiclassical transition probabilities characterize transfer of energy between “hard” and “soft” modes in various physical systems. We establish the boundary problem for singular euclidean solutions used to calculate such probabilities. Solutions are found numerically for a system of two interacting quartic oscillators. In the double-well case, we find numerical evidence that certain regular minkowskian trajectories have approximate stopping points or, equivalently, are approximately periodic. This property leads to estimates of tunneling excitation probabilities in that system and suggests that similar estimates may be possible in other systems with tunneling.