Tunneling assisted interference in double-well levitodynamics
Abstract
Levitated particles trapped in double-well potentials provide a promising platform for exploring quantum dynamics beyond the harmonic regime. We show that such systems exhibit a distinctive quantum signature arising from tunneling-assisted interference. Unlike classical dynamics, where the two wells are disconnected, in the quantum case, quantum tunneling enables eigenstates to delocalize into the other well, creating nonzero overlaps between adjacent eigenstates that introduce low-frequency components into the evolution of the mean particle position. By comparing quantum and classical dynamics of particles in one-dimensional double-well potentials, we demonstrate that this interference is uniquely quantum and can be identified through the oscillation of the average position alone. We further relate the observed spectral peaks to the structure of the energy eigenvalues. The effect provides a promising probe of the quantum signature of levitated particle motion, and has fundamental importance as it predicts the demonstration of two major phenomena of quantum mechanics, quantum tunneling and quantum interference, at the same time and on the same system.
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BibTeX
@misc{ma2026tunneling,
title = {{Tunneling assisted interference in double-well levitodynamics}},
author = {Yue Ma and Endre Bokor and M. S. Kim},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.01700},
eprint = {2609.01700},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01700},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Tunneling assisted interference in double-well levitodynamics
AU - Yue Ma
AU - Endre Bokor
AU - M. S. Kim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.01700
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01700
AB - Levitated particles trapped in double-well potentials provide a promising platform for exploring quantum dynamics beyond the harmonic regime. We show that such systems exhibit a distinctive quantum signature arising from tunneling-assisted interference. Unlike classical dynamics, where the two wells are disconnected, in the quantum case, quantum tunneling enables eigenstates to delocalize into the other well, creating nonzero overlaps between adjacent eigenstates that introduce low-frequency components into the evolution of the mean particle position. By comparing quantum and classical dynamics of particles in one-dimensional double-well potentials, we demonstrate that this interference is uniquely quantum and can be identified through the oscillation of the average position alone. We further relate the observed spectral peaks to the structure of the energy eigenvalues. The effect provides a promising probe of the quantum signature of levitated particle motion, and has fundamental importance as it predicts the demonstration of two major phenomena of quantum mechanics, quantum tunneling and quantum interference, at the same time and on the same system.
ER -