Quantum Tunneling and Its Absence in Deep Wells and Strong Magnetic Fields

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Jacob Shapiro, Princeton
IAS - Simonyi Hall 101

Zoom link: https://theias.zoom.us/j/85680254484?pwd=U8RNGfAWqGw5ZseWs2XXnpjmxvhoOo.1

New results on quantum tunneling between deep potential wells, in the presence of a strong constant magnetic field are presented. This includes a family of double well potentials containing examples for which the low-energy eigenvalue splitting vanishes, and hence quantum tunneling is eliminated. Further, by deforming within this family, the magnetic ground state can be made to transition from symmetric to anti-symmetric. For generic double wells in a certain regime, tunneling is not suppressed, and a lower bound for the eigenvalue splitting is given. Joint with Fefferman and Weinstein.