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# The partition function of the two-dimensional black hole conformal field theory

## 1 Introduction

Recently, substantial progress was made in understanding non-compact Wess-Zumino-Witten models. In particular, the spectrum and correlation functions of string theory on $`AdS_3`$, the covering space of $`SL(2,R)`$, was analysed in detail in . The spectrum for the non-compact Wess-Zumino-Witten model was determined in , using intuition for long strings obtained from  and the technical tool of spectral flow , thereby solving the long-standing problem of determining the correct Hilbert space for the $`SL(2,R)`$ WZW-model . Next, in , the computation of the free energy for string theory on $`AdS_3`$111See also e.g. . by path-integral methods gave additional support to the spectrum proposed in . Finally, in  the completeness of the Hilbert space was checked by computing various correlators (see also e.g.  for earlier work). This series of papers has answered important questions in non-compact Wess-Zumino-Witten theories and opened the road to a more extensive study of these models.

It is natural then to re-address some old questions. In particular, we can re-analyze  the toroidal partition function for the $`SL(2,R)/U(1)`$ coset conformal field theory. It is an important task to write down the partition function for this background for several reasons. The $`SL(2,R)/U(1)`$ background  was identified and analysed as a two-dimensional euclidean black hole in . Subsequently, it was employed in the construction of conformal field theories describing exact string propagation on curved spacetimes (see e.g. ). Moreover, many interesting string theory backgrounds contain $`SL(2,R)/U(1)`$ factors, for example in the context of singularities of Calabi-Yau manifolds , holographic duals for NS5-brane backgrounds , et cetera. In order to write down the toroidal partition function for string theory on these backgrounds, the most crucial ingredient is the black hole background partition sum. A precise treatment of the spectrum and the Hilbert space for the coset model was hitherto lacking.

In this letter, we address the computation of the partition function from a path-integral point of view. Our computation is technically close to the analysis of the free energy of string theory on $`AdS_3`$ in . In section 2 we discuss the setup for our computation, discussing a few general features of coset CFT and toroidal partition functions. In section 3 we perform the actual computation and discuss the crucial ingredient of Ray-Singer torsion. Next, we analyse the result and show that it agrees with the algebraic expectations in section 4. We conclude and discuss applications in section 5.

## 2 The $`SL(2,R)/U(1)`$ coset toroidal partition function

We introduce the model in this section and pay some attention to the holonomies that will play a crucial role in the computation of the partition function. The general treatment of gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten models is well-known . For a general group manifold $`G`$ the Wess-Zumino-Witten action is:

$$S[g]=\frac{k}{2\pi }_{\mathrm{WS}}d^2z\mathrm{Tr}(g^1\overline{}g)+\frac{ik}{12\pi }_\mathrm{B}\mathrm{Tr}(g^1dg)^3$$
(2.1)
where $`g(z,\overline{z})`$ is a group element, the level of the WZW-model is $`k`$, and $`B`$ is a three-dimensional manifold with the worldsheet as a boundary. Our worldsheet is a two-torus $`T^2`$.

For compact group manifolds, the level $`k`$ is in general quantised but for $`SL(2,R)`$ we have $`H^3(SL(2,R),)=0`$ so that the action is independent of our choice of manifold $`B`$ for any real $`k`$. The Wess-Zumino-Witten model has an affine symmetry $`G(z)\times G(\overline{z})`$. We will gauge an axial abelian subgroup of the symmetry group $`ghgh`$, yielding the action:

$$S_{gauged}[g;A]=S[g]\frac{k}{\pi }_{\mathrm{WS}}d^2z\mathrm{Tr}(\overline{A}\overline{}gg^1+Ag^1g+g^1\overline{A}gA+A\overline{A})$$
(2.2)
with the one-form gauge field $`A_{(1)}`$ defined as $`A_{(1)}=Adz+\overline{A}d\overline{z}`$. Our gauged theory is anomaly free (see e.g. ).

Next we concentrate on the Lorentzian $`SL(2,R)`$ group manifold. A standard parametrisation of the group elements $`g`$ is in terms of Euler angles :

$`g`$ $`=`$ $`e^{\frac{i}{2}\theta _L\sigma _2}e^{\frac{r}{2}\sigma _1}e^{\frac{i}{2}\theta _R\sigma _2}`$ (2.3)
where $`0r\mathrm{},0\theta _L<2\pi ,2\pi \theta _R<2\pi `$. We gauge the axial U(1) symmetry $`ghgh`$ where $`h=\mathrm{exp}(\frac{i}{2}\lambda \sigma _2)`$. The coordinates shift under gauge transformations as $`\theta _{L,R}\theta _{L,R}+\lambda `$ and the gauge field transforms as

$$AA+d\lambda .$$
(2.4)
The gauged WZW action (2.2) becomes:

$`S[r,\theta _R,\theta _L;A]={\displaystyle \frac{k}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle }d^2z({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(r\overline{}r\theta _L\overline{}\theta _L\theta _R\overline{}\theta _R2\mathrm{cosh}r\overline{}\theta _L\theta _R)+`$
$`(A(\overline{}\theta _R+\mathrm{cosh}r\overline{}\theta _L)+\overline{A}(\theta _L+\mathrm{cosh}r\theta _R)A\overline{A}(\mathrm{cosh}r+1)).`$ (2.5)
In  it was shown, by integrating out the gauge field classically, that the coset has a cigar geometry that can be interpreted as a Euclidean black hole. Gauging a non-compact abelian subgroup would have resulted in the Lorentzian two-dimensional black hole.

The gauged theory can be re-written in terms of the sum of an $`SL(2,R)`$ model and a $`U(1)`$ model. We thereto introduce the coordinates $`\theta =\frac{1}{2}(\theta _L\theta _R)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\theta }=\frac{1}{2}(\theta _L+\theta _R)`$. In terms of these coordinates the action can be written in the manifestly gauge invariant form (since shifts $`\stackrel{~}{\theta }\stackrel{~}{\theta }+\lambda `$ are compensated by shifts in the gauge field $`AA+\lambda `$ and $`\overline{A}\overline{A}+\overline{}\lambda `$):

$`S[r,\theta ,\stackrel{~}{\theta };A,\overline{A}]={\displaystyle \frac{k}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle }d^2z[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}r\overline{}r+(\mathrm{cosh}r1)(\theta \overline{}\theta +(A\stackrel{~}{\theta })\overline{}\theta (\overline{A}\overline{}\stackrel{~}{\theta })\theta )`$
$`(\mathrm{cosh}r+1)(A\stackrel{~}{\theta })(\overline{A}\overline{}\stackrel{~}{\theta })].`$ (2.6)
To re-write the action in product form, we first Hodge-decompose the gauge field on the torus as:

$`A`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _L+{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2\tau _2}}(u_1\overline{\tau }u_2)`$ (2.7)
$`\overline{A}`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{}\rho _R{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2\tau _2}}(u_1\tau u_2)`$ (2.8)
where $`\rho _L^{}=\rho _R`$ is well-defined on the torus and the holonomies $`u_1,u_2`$, parametrize the Wilson lines on the toroidal worldsheet with modular parameter $`\tau `$. Ignoring the holonomies for now, we can follow the treatment on the sphere (as in e.g. ). We introduce the new variables $`\rho =\frac{1}{2}(\rho _L\rho _R)`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\rho }=\frac{1}{2}(\rho _L+\rho _R)`$ and $`\kappa =\theta +\rho `$, $`\stackrel{~}{\kappa }=\stackrel{~}{\theta }\stackrel{~}{\rho }`$, in terms of which the action becomes:

$`S[r,\kappa ,\stackrel{~}{\kappa };\rho ,\stackrel{~}{\rho }]={\displaystyle \frac{k}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle }d^2z({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}r\overline{}r+(\mathrm{cosh}r1)\kappa \overline{}\kappa (\mathrm{cosh}r+1)\stackrel{~}{\kappa }\overline{}\stackrel{~}{\kappa }+`$
$`(\mathrm{cosh}r1)(\kappa \overline{}\stackrel{~}{\kappa }\overline{}\kappa \stackrel{~}{\kappa }))+{\displaystyle \frac{k}{\pi }}{\displaystyle }d^2z\rho \overline{}\rho .`$ (2.9)
Since under a gauge transformation $`\rho _{L,R}\rho _{L,R}+\lambda `$ the fields $`\kappa ,\stackrel{~}{\kappa }`$ and $`\rho `$ do not transform, the above action is gauge invariant.

We can read (2.9) as the action for the $`SL(2,R)\times U(1)`$ model. Of course, on a toroidal worldsheet we need to take care in following the holonomies in the gauge field through the coordinate redefinitions. Note however that already for the spherical topology, subtleties arise that have hitherto been succesfully ignored. Indeed, the quantity $`\kappa `$ is a linear combination of a real and imaginary field, but will nevertheless be treated as a real field . We will briefly return to the subtle issues of analytic continuation in the following, although we will not resolve all of them unambigously. The above decomposition was put to good use in  to argue for the spectrum of the CFT and to calculate the exact black hole background, and in  to compute the effective action and rederive the exact metric in a path-integral approach. We note that the holonomies of the gauge field have been transformed, via the field redefinitions, into non-trivial windings (over the two 1-cycles of the torus) for the matter fields $`\kappa ,\stackrel{~}{\kappa }`$ and $`\rho `$. They will be crucial in the following.222Our toroidal treatment of the holonomies will naturally turn out to be equivalent to the BRST analysis of the gauge invariant states in .

Before delving into the main part of the computation of the partition function we gauge-fix the action by choosing $`\stackrel{~}{\rho }=0`$. We then need to include the ghost action

$$S_{ghosts}[b,c]=\frac{1}{\pi }d^2z(b\overline{}c+\overline{b}\overline{c}).$$
(2.10)
## 3 Computing the partition function

This section contains the core of the computation of the toroidal partition function. We will discuss the various techniques needed for the computation in some detail. Our computation owes a lot to the analysis in . Of course, since  computes the free energy of $`AdS_3`$ string theory while we are interested in the partition function on the euclidean black hole background, we need to adapt their computational techniques creatively.333To avoid confusion, note that the temperature introduced in  is the temperature of $`AdS_3`$. The euclidean black hole is an analytically continued version of the Lorentzian black hole with a different time direction.

Our previous treatment of the model was in accord with standard conventions on Euler angles, but to make the computation of the partition function feasible, it is very useful to parametrize the $`SL(2,R)`$ part of the model in terms of the coordinates introduced in . After continuing the path integral to Euclidean signature to make it well defined (effectively transforming the model into the $`SL(2,C)/SU(2)`$ coset model – for discussions see  and ), the coordinate transformation becomes:

$`\upsilon `$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{sinh}{\displaystyle \frac{r}{2}}e^{i\kappa }`$ (3.11)
$`\overline{\upsilon }`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{sinh}{\displaystyle \frac{r}{2}}e^{i\kappa }`$ (3.12)
$`\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`i\stackrel{~}{\kappa }\mathrm{log}\mathrm{cosh}{\displaystyle \frac{r}{2}}.`$ (3.13)
Writing the total action in terms of these variables results in:

$`S[\varphi ,\upsilon ,\overline{\upsilon };\rho ;b,c]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{k}{\pi }}{\displaystyle d^2z\left(\varphi \overline{}\varphi +(\overline{\upsilon }+\overline{\upsilon }\varphi )(\overline{}\upsilon +\upsilon \overline{}\varphi )\right)}+`$ (3.14)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{k}{\pi }}{\displaystyle d^2z\rho \overline{}\rho }+{\displaystyle d^2z(b\overline{}c+\overline{b}\overline{c})}.`$
Note that the fields $`\varphi ,\upsilon ,\overline{\upsilon }`$ and $`\rho `$ have non-trivial holonomies. In order to perform the path integral we will decompose them in a periodic part and a holonomy part:

$`\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{\varphi }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\tau _2}}((u_1\overline{\tau }u_2)z+(u_1\tau u_2)\overline{z}))`$
$`\upsilon `$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{\upsilon }\mathrm{exp}({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\tau _2}}((u_1\overline{\tau }u_2)z(u_1\tau u_2)\overline{z})))`$
$`\overline{\upsilon }`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{\overline{\upsilon }}\mathrm{exp}(+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\tau _2}}((u_1\overline{\tau }u_2)z(u_1\tau u_2)\overline{z})))`$
$`\rho `$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{\rho }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\tau _2}}((u_1\overline{\tau }u_2)z+(u_1\tau u_2)\overline{z})),`$ (3.15)
where the hatted fields are periodic.444Trying to follow the holonomies of the gauge field through the field redefinitions we gave before gives rise to the difficulties we mentioned related to analytic continuation and reality of the fields. We chose the holonomies to be consistent with complex conjugation for $`v`$, reality for $`\varphi `$, etc. We believe the resulting spectrum gives sufficient justification for this choice of analytic continuation. The coset partition function then reads

$$Z_{cs}(\tau )=𝒟\widehat{\varphi }𝒟\widehat{\upsilon }𝒟\widehat{\overline{\upsilon }}𝒟\widehat{\rho }𝒟b𝒟c_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}𝑑u_1𝑑u_2e^{S[\varphi ,\upsilon ,\overline{\upsilon };\rho ;b,c]}.$$
(3.16)
### 3.1 Ray-Singer torsion

The core of the computation uses the Ray-Singer analytic torsion , which arises from the path integral over $`\widehat{\upsilon },\widehat{\overline{\upsilon }}`$. The relevant piece of the action, after substituting (3.15), is

$`S_{\upsilon ,\overline{\upsilon }}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(+\widehat{\varphi }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\tau _2}}(u_1\overline{\tau }u_2)\right)\widehat{\overline{\upsilon }}\left(\overline{}+\overline{}\widehat{\varphi }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\tau _2}}(u_1\tau u_2)\right)\widehat{\upsilon }`$ (3.17)
Note that the action is quadratic in $`\widehat{\upsilon },\widehat{\overline{\upsilon }}`$. Following , we observe that we can disentangle the $`\widehat{\varphi }`$-dependence by a chiral rotation. The integral over $`\upsilon ,\overline{\upsilon }`$ then becomes the regularised determinant of the Laplacian on a space of functions that have non-trivial holonomies around the cycles of the two-torus. Precisely this determinant was defined in  by using $`\zeta `$-function regularisation. The regularised determinant is called the analytic torsion555Note that the computation of the analytic torsion on the torus (cf. , p. 165-169), naturally resembles the usual computation of the partition function for a compact boson.:

$`\mathrm{det}\left|+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\tau _2}}(u_1\overline{\tau }u_2)\right|^2=`$ (3.18)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{(q\overline{q})^{2/24}}{|\mathrm{sin}(\pi (u_1\tau u_2))|^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{e^{\frac{2\pi }{\tau _2}(\mathrm{Im}(u_1\tau u_2))^2}}{|_{r=1}^{\mathrm{}}(1e^{2\pi ir\tau 2\pi i(u_1\tau u_2)})(1e^{2\pi ir\tau +2\pi i(u_1\tau u_2)})|^2}}`$ .
We introduced the usual notation $`q=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi i\tau )`$. The analytic torsion is periodic in the holonomies $`u_1`$ and $`u_2`$, as we would expect from gauge invariance.666It is also evident from the mathematical definition of analytic torsion in terms of a complex line bundle with non-trivial character $`\chi (m\tau +n)=e^{2\pi i(mu_1+nu_2)}`$. Note that the authors of  appropriately use an analytically continued version of the analytic torsion that is not periodic. If needed (for instance in order to check modular properties ), the analytic torsion can be re-written in terms of the $`\theta _1`$-function.

### 3.2 Free contributions

In this subsection we treat the other contributions to the partition function which are basically the familiar free contributions, but some factors need to be treated with care. First of all note that there is a shift $`kk2`$ in the kinetic term of $`\widehat{\varphi }`$ because of the contribution of the chiral rotation that we performed to disentangle $`\varphi `$ and $`\upsilon ,\overline{\upsilon }`$. The path integration over $`\widehat{\varphi }`$ and $`\widehat{\rho }`$ will each give the usual periodic boson partition sum $`\tau _2^{1/2}|\eta (\tau )|^2`$ with overall factor $`2\sqrt{k(k2)}`$. Moreover, the holonomy contributes an overall exponential factor. Finally, the contribution from the ghosts $`b,c`$ that we introduced to gauge fix the $`U(1)`$ symmetry is $`\tau _2|\eta (\tau )|^4`$ . It is natural that the net effect of the gauge field is to cancel the free boson contribution to the $`SL(2,R)`$ partition function.

### 3.3 Holonomies

It is convenient at this point to break the holonomy parameters $`u_1`$ and $`u_2`$ in integer and fractional parts, i.e. $`u_1=s_1+w,u_2=s_2+m`$ with $`s_1,s_2[0,1)`$ and $`w,m`$ running over the integers. Since the Ray-Singer torsion is periodic, it is only the overall exponential factor that depends on the integers $`w`$ and $`m`$ that parametrize the non-trivial windings for the compact bosons.

### 3.4 Combining ingredients

Combining all of the above we obtain for the modular invariant partition function:

$`Z_{cs}(\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`2(k(k2))^{1/2}{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑s_1𝑑s_2`$ (3.19)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{w,m=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(q\overline{q})^{2/24}}{|\mathrm{sin}(\pi (s_1\tau s_2))|^2}}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{e^{\frac{k\pi }{\tau _2}|(s_1+w)\tau (s_2+m)|^2+\frac{2\pi }{\tau _2}(\mathrm{Im}(s_1\tau s_2))^2}}{|_{r=1}^{\mathrm{}}(1e^{2\pi ir\tau 2\pi i(s_1\tau s_2)})(1e^{2\pi ir\tau +2\pi i(s_1\tau s_2)})|^2}}.`$
If we are interested in incorporating the coset theory as a factor in a string theory background $`SL(2,R)/U(1)\times `$, we combine it with the modular invariant partition function $`Z_{}`$ for strings propagating on $``$ and the reparametrization ghosts partition function $`Z_{ghosts}`$. We then integrate the modular parameter $`\tau `$ over the fundamental domain $`F_0`$ of the usual $`SL(2,Z)`$ action on the complex $`\tau `$-plane to obtain:

$$𝒵=_{F_0}\frac{d\tau d\overline{\tau }}{\tau _2}Z_{}(\tau )Z_{cs}(\tau )Z_{ghosts}(\tau ).$$
(3.20)
The general form of the partition function corresponding to the background $``$ is

$$Z_{}(\tau )=(q\overline{q})^{c_{}/24}\underset{i}{}q^{h_i}\overline{q}^{\overline{h}_i}$$
(3.21)
where $`i`$ labels all states of the CFT on $``$ and $`h_i,\overline{h}_i`$ are the left-moving and right-moving conformal weights. Modular invariance implies that $`h_i\overline{h}_i`$ is an integer. By $`c_{}`$ we denote the central charge of the CFT associated to $``$. The total partition function can then be written as:

$`𝒵`$ $`=`$ $`2(k(k2))^{1/2}{\displaystyle _{F_0}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\tau d\overline{\tau }}{\tau _2}}{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑s_1𝑑s_2`$ (3.22)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{w,m=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}q^{h_i}\overline{q}^{\overline{h}_i}e^{4\pi \tau _2(1\frac{1}{4(k2)})\frac{k\pi }{\tau _2}|(s_1+w)\tau (s_2+m)|^2+2\pi \tau _2s_1^2}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{|\mathrm{sin}(\pi (s_1\tau s_2))|^2}}\left|{\displaystyle \underset{r=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1e^{2\pi ir\tau })^2}{(1e^{2\pi ir\tau 2\pi i(s_1\tau s_2)})(1e^{2\pi ir\tau +2\pi i(s_1\tau s_2)})}}\right|^2.`$
Now we need to disentangle the information hidden in this complicated formula.

## 4 Decomposition in characters

We want to connect our partition function computation to expectations from an algebraic analysis for the Hilbert space of the coset theory. To that end we need to manipulate our result further and determine the character contributions of the different affine representations to the partition function. In other words, we have to find the correct Hilbert space to trace over that will reproduce the above partition function. It is appropriate then to first recall some $`SL(2,R)`$ representation theory. See e.g.  for a more complete treatment. The representations of the affine algebras are the modules built on the $`SL(2,R)`$ representations using the creation modes of the currents. The $`SL(2,R)`$ representations we will encounter are the (principal) discrete representations with lowest weight $`D_j^+=\{|j,m:m=j,j+1,j+2,\mathrm{}\}`$ where the lowest weight state has $`J_0^3`$ eigenvalue $`j>0`$ and is annihilated by $`J_0^{}`$, and similarly for the discrete highest weight representations $`D_j^{}=\{|j,m:m=j,j1,j2,\mathrm{}\}`$. The continuous representations $`C_j^\alpha =\{|j,m:m=\alpha ,\alpha \pm 1,\mathrm{}\}`$ where $`\alpha [0,1)`$, have an unbounded $`J_0^3`$ spectrum and $`j=\frac{1}{2}+is`$ with $`s`$ real. The quadratic Casimir of all these representations is $`c_2=j(j1)`$.

After refreshing our memory on $`SL(2,R)`$ representations, we return to decompose the partition function into a sum over representations. We will do this in several steps. We first write the compact boson part in a more recognizable form. Secondly, we expand the partition function into a sum over states. And thirdly we identify contributions from discrete and continuous representations of $`SL(2,R)`$.

To work towards the spectrum predicted in , we first identify the momentum of the compact scalar. The relevant Poisson resummation is:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{m=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}}e^{\frac{k\pi }{\tau _2}(m^22m((s_1+w)\tau _1s_2))}=\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _2}{k}}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}}e^{\frac{\pi \tau _2}{k}(n+\frac{ik}{\tau _2}((s_1+w)\tau _1s_2))^2}`$ (4.23)
where we have resummed over $`m`$ and the new integer $`n`$ is the momentum of the scalar. Secondly, after the Poisson resummation, we expand the infinite products as well as the sin-prefactor in (3.22) into an infinite sum of exponential terms. For a state in the $`SL(2,R)`$ CFT with levels $`N,\overline{N}`$ and conformal weights $`h,\overline{h}`$ in the CFT on $``$ (including reparametrization ghost contributions), the exponent arising from this expansion is:

$`\text{exponent}_{expansion}`$ $`=`$ $`2\pi i\tau _1(N+h\overline{N}\overline{h}+(q\overline{q})s_1)`$ (4.24)
$``$ $`2\pi \tau _2(N+h+\overline{N}+\overline{h}+(q+\overline{q}+1)s_1)2\pi is_2(q\overline{q})`$
where $`q`$ counts the number of $`J_{n0}^+`$ minus the number of $`J_{n<0}^{}`$ operators, corresponding to the particular state under examination. A similar definition holds for $`\overline{q}`$ in terms of the right-moving creation operators. The overall contribution to the exponent is:

$`\text{exponent}_{overall}`$ $`=`$ $`4\pi \tau _2(1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4(k2)}})+2\pi ins_2{\displaystyle \frac{\pi \tau _2}{k}}n^22\pi in\tau _1(w+s_1)`$ (4.25)
$`+(2k)\pi \tau _2s_1^22k\pi \tau _2s_1wk\pi \tau _2w^2.`$
Integrating over $`s_2`$ (see (4.24) and (4.25)) results in the constraint $`q\overline{q}=n`$. After substituting $`q\overline{q}=n`$, we find the total exponent

$`\text{exponent}_{total}`$ $`=`$ $`2\pi i\tau _1\left(N+h\overline{N}\overline{h}nw\right)`$ (4.26)
$`2\pi \tau _2(N+h+\overline{N}+\overline{h}+(q+\overline{q}+1)s_1`$
$`2(1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4(k2)}})+{\displaystyle \frac{n^2}{2k}}+{\displaystyle \frac{k}{2}}w^2+kws_1+{\displaystyle \frac{k2}{2}}s_1^2)`$
The integral over the first holonomy was fairly easy, and gave us one of the expected constraints . It relates the momentum of the compact boson to the $`J_0^3\overline{J}_0^3`$ eigenvalue in the $`SL(2,R)`$ representation.

The integral over the second holonomy is far less trivial and needs some technical trickery, inspired by the analysis in . It will allow us to separate the contributions from discrete and continuous representations of $`SL(2,R)`$. We first introduce an auxiliary variable to incorporate a prefactor and the piece of the exponent quadratic in $`s_1`$:

$`\sqrt{(k2)\tau _2}e^{2\pi \tau _2(\frac{k2}{2}s_1^2+(kw+1+(q+\overline{q}))s_1)}={\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}𝑑ce^{\frac{\pi }{(k2)\tau _2}c^22\pi (ic+\tau _2(kw+1+(q+\overline{q})))s_1}.`$
The integration over $`s_1`$ is now straightforward:

$`{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑s_1e^{2\pi s_1(ic+\tau _2(kw+1+(q+\overline{q})))}=`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi (ic+\tau _2(kw+1+(q+\overline{q})))}}\left(e^{2\pi (ic+\tau _2(kw+1+(q+\overline{q})))}1\right)`$ (4.27)
Combining it with the quadratic term in $`c`$ results in the term

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi (ic+\tau _2(kw+1+(q+\overline{q})))}}\left(e^{\frac{\pi }{(k2)\tau _2}c^22\pi (ic+\tau _2(kw+1+(q+\overline{q})))}e^{\frac{\pi }{(k2)\tau _2}c^2}\right).`$ (4.28)
### 4.1 Discrete representations

Now we observe that the exponent of the first term can be completed to a square if we set $`c=2\tau _2si\tau _2(k2)`$. Shifting the contour of $`c`$ (for the first term only) from $`\mathrm{Im}c=0`$ to $`\mathrm{Im}c=i\tau _2(k2)`$, picks up residues from the poles of the denominator in the range $`\tau _2(k2)<\mathrm{Im}c<0`$. The poles are located at $`c=i\tau _2(kw+1+(q+\overline{q}))`$ in the range:

$`\tau _2(k2)<\tau _2(kw+1+(q+\overline{q}))<0.`$ (4.29)
Now we note that we can interpret the pole contributions to the integral summed over $`q,\overline{q},w,n`$, as the trace over a constrained Hilbert space. Consider the product Hilbert space $`\widehat{𝒟}_j^+`$, the module built on the discrete representation $`𝒟_j^+`$ of $`SL(2,R)`$, and the Hilbert space for the compact boson $`^{U(1)}`$. The first constraint we put on the sum over states is $`J_0^3\overline{J}_0^3=n`$, namely the constraint we obtained from the $`s_2`$-integration. The second constraint determines the quadratic Casimir $`j`$ of the $`SL(2,R)`$ representation in terms of the winding number of the compact boson: $`J_0^3+\overline{J}_0^3=kw`$ or equivalently $`kw+1+(q+\overline{q})=12j`$. One way to see the necessity for this constraint is the fact that the T-duality $`(J^3,\overline{J}^3,n,w)(\frac{1}{k}J^3,\frac{1}{k}\overline{J}^3,w,n)`$ is a symmetry of our partition function (which is reflected in the constraint equations).

The discrete nature of the representations is determined by the fact that the sin-prefactor gives rise to only one kind of operator at level zero, namely $`J_0^+`$, and not to $`J_0^{}`$ contributions. Notice moreover that we needn’t sum over creation operators for the $`J^3`$-current or for the compact boson, since their contributions to the partition function were cancelled by the $`U(1)`$ ghosts. The second constraint $`kw+1+(q+\overline{q})=12j`$, immediately implies (via 4.29) the expected bounds on $`j`$, the Casimir of the discrete representation:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}<j<{\displaystyle \frac{k1}{2}}.`$ (4.30)
We emphasize that the upper bound we derived is not the one suggested in  but the improved bound777The improved bound was suggested for the ungauged model on the basis of consistency with the inclusion of spectral flowed representations in  and on the basis of fusion rules in . The improved bound was shown to be necessary in the coset model for a tachyon free spectrum in Little String Theory in . We prove this consistency requirement. derived in  for the ungauged $`SL(2,R)`$ WZW model.888As we will see in the following, a continuous spectrum opens up when $`j`$ reaches either the lower or the upper bound . Using the constraint we can rewrite the exponent in a familiar form. We obtain a sum over the described Hilbert space $`\mathrm{Tr}_{\widehat{𝒟}_j^+\widehat{𝒟}_j^+}q^{L_0^{cs}}\overline{q}^{\overline{L}_0^{cs}}`$ where the $`L_0^{cs}`$ operator takes the standard form:

$`L_0^{cs}`$ $`=`$ $`L_0^{SL(2,R)}L_0^{U(1)}.`$ (4.31)
The conformal weights of the primary states, which agree with the total exponent after substitution of the values for the poles, are given by:

$`h_{cs}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{j(j1)}{k2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{(nkw)^2}{4k}}`$ (4.32)
$`\overline{h}_{cs}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{j(j1)}{k2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{(n+kw)^2}{4k}}.`$ (4.33)
The summation is over states with the constraints $`J_0^3\overline{J}_0^3=n`$, $`J_0^3+\overline{J}_0^3=kw`$ and no contribution from the $`J_{n<0}^3`$ oscillators. Thus we interpreted the first part of our partition function as a character over a constrained product of an affine discrete $`SL(2,R)`$ representation times a compact boson. We sum over discrete representations that satisfy the bound (4.30). For the parafermion interpretation of this Hilbert space we refer to .

We remark that we crucially made use of the periodicity of the Ray-Singer torsion in the $`u_1`$-variable in our computation. If we would ignore this periodicity, it is clear from the analysis in  that we could identify the winding number $`w`$ of the compact boson with the parameter $`w`$ that controls the expansion of the different products in the denominator of the partition function, and therefore with the spectral flow parameter in the $`SL(2,R)`$-WZW model.999Note that this also follows from the fact that the integer holonomies $`w`$ change the current algebra on the torus according to spectral flow. See e.g. . This exemplifies in detail the relation uncovered in  between spectral flow and the winding of strings, in the coset model.

### 4.2 Continuous representations

We combine now the shifted integral over $`s`$ of the first term in (4.28) with the integral over the second term, in which we rescale $`c=2\tau _2s`$. Including the summation over winding numbers $`w`$, we obtain

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle \underset{w=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}ds[{\displaystyle \frac{e^{2\pi \tau _2(N+h+\overline{N}+\overline{h}2+2\frac{s^2+1/4}{k2}+\frac{n^2}{2k}+\frac{k}{2}(w+1)^2+(q+\overline{q}))}}{2is+k(w+1)1+(q+\overline{q})}}`$ (4.34)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{e^{2\pi \tau _2(N+h+\overline{N}+\overline{h}2+2\frac{s^2+1/4}{k2}+\frac{n^2}{2k}+\frac{k}{2}w^2)}}{2is+kw+1+(q+\overline{q})}}]`$ .
Inspecting the above expression, we observe that the first term of the $`w1`$ sector and the second term of the $`w`$ winding sector share the same exponent after spectral flow of the first by one unit $`N,\overline{N}N+q,\overline{N}+\overline{q}`$. The last operation is based on the isomorphism $`\widehat{𝒟}_j^{+,w1}\widehat{𝒟}_{\frac{k}{2}j}^{,w}`$ where the second upper index denotes the amount of spectral flow , i.e. these are discrete representations defined with respect to the algebra obtained after spectral flow. Combining terms this way we get

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle \underset{w=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}𝑑se^{2\pi \tau _2(N+h+\overline{N}+\overline{h}2+2\frac{s^2+1/4}{k2}+\frac{n^2}{2k}+\frac{k}{2}w^2)}`$
$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2is+kw1+(q+\overline{q})}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2is+kw+1+(q+\overline{q})}}\right)`$ (4.35)
As in , these two terms can be interpreted as representing two halves of a continuous representation with $`j=\frac{1}{2}+is`$. The first term represents the contribution of a $`D^{}`$ representation (after spectral flow) and the second term still corresponds to a $`D^+`$ representation. In particular, note that the second term, when summed over states $`(J_0^+\overline{J}_0^+)^r|\psi `$ in $`𝒟^+`$, gives rise to a logarithmically divergent sum. We adopt here the regularisation procedure of  and introduce a Liouville wall that cuts off the infinite volume otherwise available to the strings in the continuous representation101010A rigorous justification of this procedure would require a precise identification of the coefficient of the exponential suppression after the introduction of a Liouville wall at a finite distance in the target space , and a precise treatment of the sum over the $`J_0^3`$ charge that is related to the creation and annihilation operators of the $`J^+`$ and $`J^{}`$ currents. As in , we will find justification for the adopted prescription from an independent scattering amplitude argument. . Thus we obtain a regularised sum over the zeromodes of the following form:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{A+r}}e^{rϵ}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{log}ϵ+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dA}}\mathrm{log}\mathrm{\Gamma }(A),A=is+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(kw+1n).`$ (4.36)
Similarly, the first term in the integral can be interpreted as an infinite sum over states in a $`𝒟^{}`$ Hilbert space of the form $`(J_0^{}\overline{J}_0^{})^r|\psi `$

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{Br}}e^{rϵ}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{log}ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dB}}\mathrm{log}\mathrm{\Gamma }(B),B=is+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(kw1+n).`$ (4.37)
The density of states as a function of $`s`$ is then found to be

$`\rho (s)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi }}2\mathrm{log}ϵ+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi i}}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{2ds}}\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(is+\frac{1}{2}m)\mathrm{\Gamma }(is+\frac{1}{2}+\overline{m})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(+is+\frac{1}{2}+\overline{m})\mathrm{\Gamma }(+is+\frac{1}{2}m)}},`$ (4.38)
where $`m=\frac{1}{2}(nkw),\overline{m}=\frac{1}{2}(kw+n)`$ are the eigenvalues of $`J_0^3`$ and $`\overline{J}_0^3`$. In the above expression we have truncated the range of integration over $`s`$ to $`[0,\mathrm{})`$ using the invariance of the exponent under $`ss`$. Thus, the contribution of the continuous representations of $`SL(2,R)`$ combined with the momentum and winding modes of the free boson, can be written as

$`{\displaystyle \underset{w,n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle _0^+\mathrm{}}2𝑑s\rho (s)\mathrm{Tr}_{\widehat{𝒞}_{\frac{1}{2}+is}\widehat{𝒞}_{\frac{1}{2}+is}}q^{L_0^{cs}}\overline{q}^{\overline{L}_0^{cs}}`$ (4.39)
where the conformal primaries have weights

$`h_{cs}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{s^2+\frac{1}{4}}{k2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{(nkw)^2}{4k}}`$ (4.40)
$`\overline{h}_{cs}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{s^2+\frac{1}{4}}{k2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{(n+kw)^2}{4k}}`$ (4.41)
and the trace over $`\widehat{C}_{\frac{1}{2}+is}\widehat{𝒞}_{\frac{1}{2}+is}`$ is subject to the same constraints as before, namely $`J_0^3+\overline{J}_0^3=kw`$, $`J_0^3\overline{J}_0^3=n`$ and the $`J^3`$-current and free boson creation operators act trivially.

As in , we can perform a consistency check on the density of states by analysing the phase shift in a scattering experiment. We can introduce a Liouville wall for the continuous representation strings, to cut off the infinite volume available to them111111In our case the volume divergence is apparent from the pole of the partition function (3.22) at $`s_1=0=s_2`$. Excising the pole corresponds to introducing the Liouville wall., and relate the density of states to the phase shift for scattering a string in the bulk of $`SL(2,R)/U(1)`$ and then off the Liouville wall . Making use of the fact that the form of the scattering amplitude is the same for the coset theory as for the ungauged $`SL(2,R)`$ model (see e.g. ), we can conclude that the density of states is indeed given by (4.38), where we obtain the eigenvalues of the $`J_0^3`$ and $`\overline{J}_0^3`$ operators from the constraint equations on the Hilbert space. This gives an overall consistency check on our regularisation procedure.

## 5 Conclusions

We have thereby finished the identification of the characters of the different representations in the $`SL(2,R)/U(1)`$ coset partition function. We obtained agreement with the spectrum that one would get by imposing the usual  algebraic constraints on the spectrum derived in  for the ungauged model. We have thereby proved the correctness of this procedure from first principles. In particular we proved the upper bound on the spin and determined the density of string states in the continuous representations.

It is straightforward to extend our computation to the T-dual trumpet background , since our analytic treatment is related smoothly to the algebraic treatment of the conformal field theory in which T-duality is manifest. The partition function of the Lorentzian black hole too, should now be within reach. It might also be possible to include a mass in the black hole background  and compute the temperature dependent partition function. This could provide a setup where aspects of stringy black hole thermodynamics could be addressed in a systematic manner.

The program of studying the coset theory can of course be followed along the lines of  by computing various two-, three- and four-point correlation functions to check the completeness of the Hilbert space. This should be straightforward due to the easy relations between the correlations functions for the parent and the coset theories. Note that we can interpret the winding number $`w`$ and the momentum $`n`$ as the winding of the string around the semi-infinite cigar, and the momentum around the circle at infinity. The winding number is not conserved since the string can slip off the semi-infinite cigar, but it is well possible that a precise restriction on the violation of winding number can be derived following  (appendix D).

One of our prime motivations for computing the partition function on the black hole background was to be able to analyse more rigorously the spectrum of string theory on backgrounds including the $`SL(2,R)/U(1)`$ coset. Given our analysis this is now possible and should find applications, for example in analysing the holographic correspondence for these backgrounds.

It is also important to construct boundary states in the coset theory that would correspond to D-branes in these backgrounds. For the parent $`SL(2,R)`$ conformal field theory, the construction was done in , with applications to $`AdS_3`$ string theory . For the coset theory a similar construction should be possible , and should yield information on D-branes in NS5-brane backgrounds (see e.g. ).

Another extension of our results would be to analyse the partition function of the $`N=2`$ supersymmetric extension of our coset model and make connection with the work  (based on ). Namely, a precise analysis of the spectrum might shed additional light on the duality between the $`SL(2,R)/U(1)`$ coset theory and the $`N=2`$ Liouville CFT.

In summary, we believe that we provided a good basis for a precise path integral analysis of the spectrum of non-compact coset conformal field theories and for uncovering more secrets of black hole backgrounds in CFT and string theory.

###### Acknowledgments.

Research supported in part by the Reed Fund Award, the CTP and the LNS of MIT and the U.S. Department of Energy under cooperative research agreement # DE-FC02-94ER40818. A. H. is also supported by an A. P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and a DOE OJI award.


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# The Euclidean resonance and quantum tunneling

## I INTRODUCTION

Quantum tunneling under a potential barrier is a part of a variety of physical processes. The computation of the probability for a classically forbidden region has a certain peculiarity from the mathematical standpoint: there necessarily arises here the concept of motion in imaginary time or along a complex trajectory . The famous semiclassical approach of Wentzel, Kramers, and Brillouin (WKB)  for tunneling probability can be easily reformulated in terms of classical trajectories in the complex time. The method of complex trajectories is also applicable to a non-stationary case . This method has been further developed in papers , where singularities of the trajectories in the complex plane were accounted for an arbitrary potential barrier (see also ). Recent achievements in the semiclassical theory are presented in Refs. .

A control of tunneling processes by external signal is a part of the field called quantum control which is actively developed now, see for example Ref.  and references therein. Excitations of molecules, when one should excite only particular chemical bonds , a control of acoustic waves in solids , formation of programmable atomic wave packets , a control of electron states in heterostructures , and a control of photo current in semiconductors , are typical examples of control by laser pulses.

Let us focus on main aspects of tunneling under nonstationary conditions. When the electric field $`\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Omega }t`$ acts on a tunneling particle of the initial energy $`E`$, it can absorb the quantum $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (with the probability proportional to the small parameter $`^2`$) and tunnel after that in the more transparent part of the barrier with the higher energy $`E+\mathrm{\Omega }`$. The pay in the absorption probability may be compensated by the probability gain in tunneling. In this case the system tends to absorb further quanta to low the total probability of barrier penetration. If $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is not big, the process of tunneling, with a simultaneous multi-quanta absorption, can be described in a semiclassical way by the method of classical trajectories in the complex time . When a tunneling particle of the energy $`E`$ is acted by a short-time signal, the particle energy after escape is $`E+\delta E`$, where the energy gain $`\delta E=N\omega `$, should be extremized with respect to the number of absorbed quanta $`N`$ and the energy $`\omega `$ of each quantum. This extreme corresponds to the method of classical trajectories .

According to the perturbation theory, the both probabilities, of absorption and emission of a quantum, are small being proportional to $`^2`$. After absorption, $`\delta E`$ is positive which enhances the total probability due to the increase of the tunneling rate. After emission, $`\delta E`$ is negative and the particle should tunnel with a smaller energy in a less transparent part of the barrier; in this case there is no gain in the probability due to tunneling as for absorption. At first sight, tunneling in a nonstationary field cannot be assisted by an emission of quanta of this field since one should pay in probability twice. This conclusion is correct as soon as the nonstationary field is small and the perturbation theory is applicable. For tunneling the perturbation theory with respect to a non-stationary field stops to be valid already for very small fields . What happens to emission-assisted tunneling when the nonstationary field is not very small?

For a not very small nonstationary field the perturbation approach should be substituted by the semiclassical one. In this approach a multi-quanta absorption is accounted by classical trajectories in the complex time and the transition probability $`W\mathrm{exp}(A)`$ is expressed through the classical action $`A`$ calculated by means of those trajectories. This differs from the the stationary case described by the WKB formula $`W\mathrm{exp}[A_0(E)]`$. The particle with the initial energy $`E`$ emits quanta, “dives” on the level $`E\delta E`$, and proceeds the penetration with this energy during the certain time interval $`i\theta `$. The “diving” process does not contribute much to the action $`A`$ (in contrast to the perturbation theory) but the further motion adds $`A_0(E\delta E)`$ and the term $`2\theta \delta E<0`$. The last term is analogous to the occupation one, $`\delta E/T`$, when the temperature $`T`$ is substituted by $`1/2\theta `$ . As shown in the paper, under some conditions of the nonstationary signal the “diving” process is instant in the complex time and weakly contributes to the total action. The condition of the instant “diving” is not necessary for the strong reduction of $`A`$.

The emission-assisted tunneling exhibits a surprising feature: under action of the certain signal the tunneling rate can be not exponentially small since the action can tend to zero ($`A(E_R)=0`$) at some energy $`E_R`$ which depends on the signal parameters. The negative term $`2\theta \delta E`$ in the action plays an important role in the dramatic reduction of the action $`A`$ under certain conditions. According to this, the tunneling rate $`W\mathrm{exp}(A)`$ reaches a sharp maximum at the energy $`E_R`$. The method used implies formally a small probability $`\mathrm{exp}(A)1`$ but it can be of the order of $`10^1`$ instead of an extremely small value. In an anharmonic potential well a classical or quantum particle of the energy $`E`$, acted by the signal $`\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Omega }t`$, can exhibit a resonance if to adapt the frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ to the energy $`E`$ . Analogously, to get a maximum tunnel penetration at some given initial energy $`E`$ of the particle, the external signal should be adapted to this energy. In the first case a motion occurs in real time but in the second case one should use imaginary (complex) time to describe the process. Traditionally, an action in imaginary time is called the Euclidean action which comes from relativity where the geometry is Euclidean in imaginary time. Extending this analogy, one can call the above tunnel phenomenon the Euclidean resonance.

A scenario of the Euclidean resonance is the following: the particle with the energy $`E`$, before the barrier, leaves it having the exit energy $`E+\delta E`$ which is less than $`E`$; the position of the exit wave packet in time is close to the peak of the signal and the duration of the exit wave packet is roughly the under-barrier time $`\theta `$; during this time interval the tunneling rate is not exponentially small for energies $`(E_RE)/E_RA_0^1(E_R)`$. This means that under action of a specially adapted signals a particle can penetrate through very non-transparent barriers (big $`A_0)`$. One should emphasize, this process corresponds to a motion deep under a barrier but not a transition over its top. As shown in the paper, the signal amplitude, required for the Euclidean resonance, can be very small comparing to an electric field of the static barrier.

In Secs. II-IV the problem of the Euclidean resonance for a decay of the metastable state in the $`\delta `$-potential well is solved exactly in the semiclassical sense. This means that for the wave function $`\psi (x,t)=\mathrm{exp}[iS(x,t)/\mathrm{}+i\sigma _1(x,t)+i\mathrm{}\sigma _2(x,t)+\mathrm{}]`$ (we use $`\mathrm{}`$ in this relation) the action $`S`$, the first, and the second non-semiclassical correction $`\sigma _1`$ and $`\sigma _2`$ have been found exactly in the analytical forms. The developed method enables to write down the exact expression for any $`\sigma _n`$. In Sec. V the semiclassical condition $`(\sigma _1\sigma _2\mathrm{})`$ is obtained. In Sec. VI the method of complex trajectories is shown to be valid for the problem. In Secs. VIII-IX the method of complex trajectories is applied to the Euclidean resonance in a smooth potential. In Sec. XI some particular manifestations of the resonance are considered. It can be used for a selective stimulation of chemical reactions. For alpha-decay of nuclei the experimentally registered energies of alpha-particles range in the approximate interval of 2-10 MeV. For lower energies the tunneling probability is very low which makes observations to be impossible. However, there is no a principal ban for the soft alpha-decay, for example, with the energies of alpha-particles of the order of 1 KeV. The energy, counted from the bottom of the nuclear potential well, remains of the order of MeV. Adapting an external signal, with the duration of one or ten femtoseconds, to a possible energy level of an alpha-particle, one can try to search the soft alpha-decay. In principle, one can stimulate the conventional alpha-decay but this requires a very short signals of the order of $`10^{19}\mathrm{s}`$.

## II TRIANGULAR BARRIER

As in Ref. , we consider decay of the metastable state in the potential

$$V(x)=V_0x\sqrt{\frac{2(VE)}{m}}\delta (x)$$
(1)
under action of a nonstationary electric field $`(t)`$. In the limit $`_00`$, the energy $`E`$ corresponds to the bound state in the $`\delta `$-function potential well. The symmetric wave function $`\psi (x,t)=\mathrm{exp}[iS(x,t)+i\sigma (x,t)]`$ depends on the classical action $`S`$ and the quantum correction $`\sigma `$. The action $`S`$ has the form

$`S(x,t)=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_0^2}{2m}}{\displaystyle _t^{t_0}}𝑑t_1\left[i\tau _{00}(t_0t_1){\displaystyle _{t_1}^{t_0}}𝑑t_2h(t_2)\right]^2`$ (2)
$`+_0x\left[i\tau _{00}(t_0t){\displaystyle _t^{t_0}}𝑑t_1h(t_1)\right]+(VE)tVt`$ (3)
where

$$\tau _{00}=\frac{\sqrt{2m(VE)}}{_0};h(t)=\frac{(t)}{_0}$$
(4)
and the function $`t(x,t)`$ is defined by the equation

$$\frac{mx}{_0}=i(tt_0)\tau _{00}+\frac{(t_0t)^2}{2}+_t^{t_0}𝑑t_1(t_1t)h(t_1)$$
(5)
For a symmetric pulse $`(t)=(t)`$ the moment $`t=0`$ plays an important role and it is convenient to introduce $`\tau _0(x)=it_0(x,0)`$. According to Eq. (5), the function $`\tau _0(x)`$ is determined by the relation

$$x=\frac{_0}{2m}\left[2\tau _0\tau _{00}\tau _0^22\tau _{00}_0^{\tau _0}𝑑\xi h(\xi )\right]$$
(6)
By means of Eqs. (2) and (6) one can write down the first derivative of the action

$$i\frac{S(x,0)}{x}=_0\left[\phi (\tau _0)\tau _{00}\right]$$
(7)
and the second derivative

$$i\frac{^2S(x,0)}{x^2}=m\frac{1+h(\tau _0)}{\tau _{00}\tau _0\tau _0h(\tau _0)}$$
(8)
Here $`\tau _0`$ is expressed through $`x`$ by Eq. (6) and

$$\phi (\tau )=\tau +_0^\tau 𝑑\xi h(\xi )$$
(9)
In the static case, $`(t)=0`$, the action has the WKB form

$$iS=\frac{2\tau _{00}}{3}(VE)\left[\left(1\frac{x_0}{VE}\right)^{3/2}1\right]$$
(10)
The point $`x=x_1`$, where $`iS/x=0`$, is remarkable since at this point the particle comes out of the barrier. The exit point $`x_1`$ is given by Eq. (6) with $`\tau _0=\tau _1`$ where $`\tau _1`$ is determined by the equation

$$\phi (\tau _0)=\tau _{00}$$
(11)
There is another remarkable point $`x_2=x(\tau _2)`$, where $`\tau _2`$ can be found from the equation

$$\tau _{00}\tau _0\tau _0h(\tau _0)=0$$
(12)
The first derivative (7) is finite at this point but $`i^2S/x^2(x_2x)^{1/2}`$.

## III THE PROBABILITY OF DECAY

One can show, using Eq. (2), that

$$iS(x_1,t)=iS(x_1,0)+\frac{t^4_0^2}{8m^2}\left[i\frac{^2S(x,0)}{x^2}\right]_{x_1}$$
(13)
Eq. (13) determines the duration of the exit wave packet

$$\delta t=\left(\frac{_0^2}{8m^2}\left[i\frac{^2S(x,0)}{x^2}\right]_{x_1}\right)^{1/4}$$
(14)
Only those exit points $`x_1`$ are physical for which the second derivative of the action is negative. The classical trajectory is given by the Newton equation

$$m\frac{^2x(t)}{t^2}=_0+(t)$$
(15)
One can show from the Hamilton-Jacoby equation , that

$$\mathrm{Im}\frac{dS(x(t),t)}{dt}=\frac{m}{2}\mathrm{Im}\left(\frac{x}{t}\right)^2+\left[_0+(t)\right]\mathrm{Im}x(t)$$
(16)
The qualitative plot of $`\mathrm{Im}S`$ is shown in Fig. 1. We see that the imaginary part of the action is a constant at a real classical trajectory. One can find the probability $`𝑑x\psi ^2`$ to find the particle outside the barrier, after an action of the pulse, by putting $`\psi =\mathrm{exp}(iS+i\sigma )`$, where $`\sigma `$ is a non-semiclassical part in the exact expression of the wave function . At every moment of time the $`x`$-integration is determined by the saddle point in the vicinity of the classical trajectory in Fig. 1 and does not depend on time, according to conservation of flux. For this reason, one can calculate the probability at $`t=0`$ when

$$\psi =\mathrm{exp}\left[iS(x_1,0)+\frac{(xx_1)^2}{2}\left(i\frac{^2S}{x^2}\right)_{x_1}+i\sigma _1(x_1,0)\right]$$
(17)
According to Eq. (23) of Ref. , the first non-semiclassical correction has the form

$$i\sigma _1(x_1,0)=\mathrm{ln}\sqrt{1\frac{\tau _1}{\tau _{00}}\left[1+h(\tau _1)\right]}\frac{1}{2}$$
(18)
Ignoring the finite duration $`\delta t`$ (14) of the exit wave packet and using Eq. (8) for the second derivative, one can obtain for the total probability to find the particle outside the barrier the following expression

$`W(E,t)=t(VE)\mathrm{exp}(A_0)`$ (19)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{4}{e}}(VE){\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2\pi m}}{_0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}\left[A(E)\right]}{\sqrt{(\tau _1h(\tau _1)+\tau _1\tau _{00})(1+h(\tau _1))}}}\mathrm{\Theta }\left[t\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2m}{_0}}(x_{det}x_1)}\right]`$ (20)
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }(t)`$ is the step function and

$$A(E)=2\mathrm{Im}S(x_1,0)$$
(21)
The first term corresponds to the conventional decay process $`((t)=0)`$ , when

$$A_0=\frac{4}{3}(VE)\tau _{00},$$
(22)
It comes from the continuity equation

$$\frac{W}{t}=\frac{2}{m}\mathrm{Im}\psi ^{}\frac{\psi }{x};\psi =\frac{\sqrt{m(VE)}}{p(x)}\mathrm{exp}\left(ip𝑑x\right)$$
(23)
where the momentum has its classical form $`p(x)=\sqrt{2m(EV+_0x)}`$. In Eq. (19) $`x_{det}`$ is the point of detection of the exit particle. Outside the barrier a correction of the trajectory (15) by the non-stationary part $`(t)`$ is small. The first term in Eq. (18) is a short-time expansion of the full expression $`1\mathrm{exp}[t(VE)\mathrm{exp}(A_0)]`$ corresponding to the multi-instanton approach.

## IV THE NONSTATIONARY PULSE

Now let us specify a particular shape of the pulse of the electric field

$$(t)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^4t^42\mathrm{\Omega }^4\theta ^2t^2\right)$$
(24)
We consider further the limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }^4\theta ^41`$ and, omitting the small width $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta )^1\theta `$, one can write

$$\phi (\tau )=\tau \lambda \theta \mathrm{\Theta }(\tau \theta );\lambda =\frac{\sqrt{\pi }}{2\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2}\frac{}{_0}\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^4\theta ^4\right)$$
(25)
For the pulse (24) the function $`\phi ^2(\tau )`$ is plotted in Fig. 2. One can see that at some values of $`\tau _{00}^2`$ three solutions of the equation $`\phi ^2(\tau )=\tau _{00}^2`$ are possible. According to this, there are different types of $`x`$-dependence of $`iS(x,0)`$ which are shown in Fig. 3. The thick solid curves in Fig. 2 represents the physical regime when the second derivative (8) is negative. The regimes, corresponding to the thin solid curves in Fig. 2, are not realized. This refers only to the vicinity of the moment $`t=0`$; when a moment of time is not close to zero, the pulse is small and there is only one physical branch $`\phi ^2(\tau )=\tau ^2`$. We do not study here how the two regimes merge with time and consider only a time interval bigger than $`\delta t`$ when the equation (18) for the probability holds.

## V THE SEMICLASSICAL CONDITION

The semiclassical condition means a big action $`S`$ comparing to the non-semiclassical part $`\sigma `$ . As follows from the expression for $`\sigma `$ , it becomes big at the point $`x_2`$ where the second derivative of the action (8) is infinity. The first derivative (7) remains finite at this point which makes an essential difference with the static case ($`(t)=0`$) when the relations $`iS/x=0`$ and $`i^2S/x^2=\mathrm{}`$ are fulfilled at the same point giving rise to the Stokes lines . In the present case there is no Stokes lines which makes the procedure of going around $`x_2`$ in the complex plane to be easy. This procedure enables to avoid the point $`x_2`$, where the semiclassical condition breaks down, and to go over from one branch in Fig. 3 to another remaining within the semiclassical approach. For the pulse (24), the semiclassical condition does not break down at the point $`x_1`$.

For the pulse (24), Eqs. (11) and (23) result in the estimates

$$\tau _1\theta \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta };\tau _2\theta \frac{\sqrt{\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2}}{2\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta }$$
(26)
Going around the point $`x_2`$, one can put $`\tau _0=\tau _2+\delta \tau `$, where $`\delta \tau =\delta \tau \mathrm{exp}(i\varphi )`$ and the phase $`\varphi `$ varies between $`0`$ and $`\pi `$. We have

$$\tau _{00}\tau _0\tau _0h(\tau _0)\left(\tau _{00}\theta \right)\left[1\mathrm{exp}\left(4\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta \sqrt{\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2}\delta \tau \right)\right]$$
(27)
One can choose $`\delta \tau (\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta )^1`$. In the semiclassical expansion $`\sigma =\sigma _1+\sigma _2+\mathrm{}`$ it should be $`A\sigma _1\sigma _2\mathrm{}`$ The estimations at the semi circle around $`\tau _2`$, easily followed from , are

$$i\sigma (\tau _2+\delta \tau ,0)\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}\frac{\tau _{00}}{\tau _{00}\theta }\frac{\theta }{2\tau _{00}}(1\lambda )$$
(28)
and

$$i\sigma (\tau _2+\delta \tau )\frac{\tau _{00}}{(VE)\theta }\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }^4\theta ^4\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2}{\tau _{00}\theta }$$
(29)
Now the semiclassical condition $`\sigma _1\sigma _2`$ reads

$$\frac{\tau _{00}}{\theta \tau _{00}}\mathrm{\Omega }^4\theta ^4\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2(VE)\theta $$
(30)
The method used implies that $`\mathrm{exp}(A)1`$ but this parameter can be of the order of $`10^1`$ instead of an extremely small value.

## VI THE METHOD OF COMPLEX TRAJECTORIES

The action $`A`$ in Eq. (18) can be written in the form

$$A=2i_0^{\tau _1}𝑑\tau _0\frac{S(x(\tau _0),0)}{\tau _0}$$
(31)
where $`x(\tau _0)`$ is given by Eq. (6). The relation (31) can be transformed into the following one

$$A=\frac{_0^2}{m}\left[\tau _1\phi (\tau _1)^2_0^{\tau _1}𝑑\tau _0\phi (\tau _0)^2\right]$$
(32)
where $`\tau _1`$ is determined by Eq. (11).

The result (32) can be obtained by the method of trajectories in the imaginary (corresponding to the Euclidean norm) time $`t=i\tau `$

$$A=2_0^{\tau _1}𝑑\tau \left[\frac{m}{2}\left(\frac{x}{\tau }\right)^2+V(x)(t)xE\right]$$
(33)
where

$$V(x)=V_0x$$
(34)
The trajectory satisfies the classical equation in the imaginary (Euclidean) time

$$m\frac{^2x(\tau )}{\tau ^2}=_0(\tau )$$
(35)
with the boundary conditions

$$\left(\frac{x(\tau )}{\tau }\right)_{\tau _1}=\sqrt{\frac{2(VE)}{m}};x(\tau _1)=0;\left(\frac{x(\tau )}{\tau }\right)_0=0$$
(36)
It follows from Eqs. (35) and (36) that

$$m\frac{x}{\tau }=_0_0^\tau 𝑑\xi (\xi )$$
(37)
The trajectory has the form

$$x(\tau )=\frac{_0}{2m}\left[\tau _1^2\tau ^2+2_0^{\tau _1}𝑑\xi _0^\xi 𝑑\eta h(\eta )\right]$$
(38)
The trajectory starts at the exit point $`x(0)=x_1`$, with the energy $`E+\delta E`$, and terminates at the enter point $`x(\tau _1)=0`$ with the energy $`E`$. The action (33), in the method of classical trajectories, produces the same action (32) followed from the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. The method of classical trajectories should be supplemented by the rule of selection of stable extrema

$$i\left(\frac{^2S(x,0)}{x^2}\right)_{x_1}<0$$
(39)
The energy of the exit particle $`E+\delta E`$ can be found from the condition

$$E+\delta E=V_0x_1$$
(40)
and the energy gain is

$$\delta E=\frac{(VE)}{\tau _{00}}\left[\tau _{00}^2\tau _1^22_0^{\tau _1}𝑑\tau _0_0^{\tau _0}𝑑\xi h(\xi )\right]$$
(41)
## VII THE EUCLIDEAN RESONANCE

The action (32) has the geometric interpretation

$$A=\frac{_0^2}{m}\left(Q_+Q_{}\right)$$
(42)
where $`Q_+`$ and $`Q_{}`$ are the areas shown in Fig. 2 for the pulse (24). The plot of the action (42) is shown in Fig. 4 where the thick curves correspond to the physical regimes under the condition (39). The action satisfies the relation $`A/E=A_0/E`$, at $`\tau _{00}=\theta `$, where $`A_0`$ is given by Eq. (22). The action $`A`$ has to be inserted in Eq. (19) and at a given $`\tau _{00}`$ one should take the lower curve. In this sense the regions (b) and (c) in Fig. 4 are most important where

$$A=2(E_RE)\theta ;E<E_{ext}$$
(43)
Here the definitions are used

$$E_{ext}=E_R\frac{\theta ^2_0^2}{6m}\left(1+\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\lambda \right)\left(\lambda _T\lambda \right)\mathrm{\Theta }\left(\lambda _T\lambda \right)$$
(44)
where the resonance energy and the threshold pulse amplitude are introduced

$$E_R=V\frac{\theta ^2_0^2}{6m};\lambda _T=1\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$$
(45)
Within the exponential accuracy the probability (19) to find the particle outside the barrier is

$$W\mathrm{exp}\left[2(E_RE)\theta \right]\mathrm{\Theta }\left(E_{ext}E\right)$$
(46)
As shown in Fig. 4, the expression (46) has the jump behavior as a function of $`E`$. At $`E_{ext}<E`$ the exit point $`x_1`$ becomes complex resulting in the complex trajectory, defined by Eq. (15) in the real time, after exit the barrier. As follows from Eq. (16), the amplitude of the exit wave packet exponentially decays in time as for a particle with a complex energy. Hence the particle with $`E>E_{ext}`$ does not leave the barrier.

The energy of the exit particle (for the lower curve in Fig. 4)

$$E+\delta E=V3(VE_R)$$
(47)
turns to $`E`$ at the upper end of the lower curve in Fig. 4. The duration of the exit wave packet (14) in the case of the pulse (24) is

$$\delta t=\theta \left[\frac{4}{3(VE_R)\theta }\right]^{1/4}$$
(48)
Within the exponential accuracy the tunneling probability $`W\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{min}\{A_0;A\}\right)`$ (19) is plotted as a function of energy in Fig. 5. At each amplitude of the pulse $`\lambda `$ there is a peak of $`W`$ at the energy $`E_{ext}`$ (44). When $`\lambda \lambda _T`$ the peak grows, reaches the value $`W1`$, and remains of the order of unity under further increase of the amplitude $`\lambda \lambda _T`$ as follows from Eq. (46). The function $`W(E)`$ has a very sharp peak at $`E=E_R`$ which jumps down to $`W\mathrm{exp}(A_0)`$ at $`E>E_R`$. Formally, the action $`A`$ becomes of the order of unity at $`E=E_R`$ and the semiclassical condition violates. This means that the energy $`E_RE`$ should not be less than $`\theta ^1`$. To get a classic resonance at some fixed energy in a non-harmonic potential one should adapt the frequency of the periodic signal to this energy and the oscillation amplitude depends on the strength of the signal. Analogously, to get a maximum tunnel penetration at some energy $`E_R`$ the external signal should be also adapted to this energy (by means of Eq. (45)) and the intensity of the exit particles depends on the signal amplitude. In the first case a motion occurs in the real time but in the second case one should use the imaginary (complex) time to describe the process. Traditionally, an action in the imaginary time is called the Euclidean action which comes from the relativity where the geometry is Euclidean in the imaginary time. Extending this analogy, one can call the above tunnel phenomenon the Euclidean resonance.

The non-stationary field (24) at $`\mathrm{\Omega }^4\theta ^41`$ can be called the instant signal since in the imaginary time it is well localized near the “moment” $`i\theta `$. The Euclidean resonance can occur not only for instant signals, nevertheless, they have an advantage of enhancement of the effective amplitude $`\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Omega }^4\theta ^4)`$. For an instant signal, if the initial energy level $`E`$ is fixed, the Euclidean resonance occurs at some resonance value $`\theta _R`$ defined by the condition (45)

$$\theta _R=\frac{6m(VE)}{_0}$$
(49)
The effective amplitude of the signal $`\lambda `$ (25) should satisfy not a resonance but the threshold condition $`\lambda >\lambda _T`$. The probability of tunneling (46) can be rewritten in the form

$$W\mathrm{exp}\left[3\sqrt{3}A_0(E)\frac{\theta _R\theta }{\theta _R}\right]\mathrm{\Theta }\left(\theta _R\theta \right)$$
(50)
where $`A_0(E)`$ is the conventional action (22).

The way of the particle under the barrier is shown in Fig. 6 in terms of its total energy. In the limit of big $`\mathrm{\Omega }^4\theta ^4`$ the right-hand side of Eq. (35) has the form $`_0+\lambda _0\delta (\tau \theta )`$. According to this, the particle moves in the following way: (1) it starts at the point $`x=x_1`$ ($`\tau =0`$) and moves free, (2) it reaches the point $`x0`$ approximately at the moment $`i\theta `$, (3) it gets the instant energy gain at the point $`x0`$ at the moment $`i\theta `$, and (4) it arrives in the true point $`x=0`$ having the energy $`E`$. Since the non-stationary pulse is instant, the action (33) does not change during the pulse and can be written as a sum of two parts

$$A=A_0(E+\delta E)+2\theta \delta E$$
(51)
where the conventional action $`A_0`$ is given by Eq. (22) under the condition $`\tau _{00}=\theta `$. Since $`\delta E<0`$, the action increases $`A_0(E+\delta E)>A_0(E)`$, but the term $`2\theta \delta E`$ provides a reduction of the total action which results in $`A=0`$ at $`E=E_R`$.

## VIII THE EUCLIDEAN RESONANCE FOR A SMOOTH POTENTIAL

Suppose the static potential to have no singularities, like the potential (1). Such a potential is shown in Fig. 7(a). In this case the action $`A`$ has the form

$$A=2\mathrm{Im}_C𝑑t\left[\frac{m}{2}\left(\frac{x}{t}\right)^2V(x)+x(t)+E\right]$$
(52)
The contour of integration is shown in Fig. 7(b) where it starts at the point $`t=0`$. The horizontal dashed line corresponds to the conventional case $`(t)=0`$. The classical trajectory satisfies the equation in the complex time

$$m\frac{^2x}{t^2}+V^{}(x)=(t)$$
(53)
For a smooth potential let us choose the signal in the form

$$(t)=\frac{t\theta }{t^2+\theta ^2}\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2t^2\right)$$
(54)
We consider the case of the instant signal when $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^21`$ and $`(t)`$ is localized at the small part (2) of the order of $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta )^1`$ in Fig. 7(b). For the instant signal (54) the motion along the part (1) in Fig. 7(b) (the horizontal path in Fig. 7(a)) is free and $`x(t)=\stackrel{~}{x}(t)`$, where the free trajectory $`\stackrel{~}{x}(t)`$ satisfies the equation

$$\frac{m}{2}\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{x}}{t}\right)^2+V(\stackrel{~}{x})=E+\delta E(\mathrm{region}1)$$
(55)
A deviation of $`mx/t`$ from $`m\stackrel{~}{x}/t`$ starts at the region (2) in Fig. 7(b). If $`t`$ belongs to the regions (2) (the vertical path in Fig. 7(a)) or (3) (the left horizontal path in Fig. 7(a)), one can write

$$m\frac{x}{t}_0^t𝑑t_1(t_1)+m\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{x}}{t}\right)_{i\theta }(\mathrm{region}2)$$
(56)
The classical momentum $`mx/t`$ gets the jump $`_C𝑑t(t)`$ after passing the part (2), but the coordinate $`x`$ does not have a jump on the time scale $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta )^1`$ in the vicinity of the part (2). At the region (3) the motion again is free, $`x(t)=\stackrel{~}{x}(t)`$, where the trajectory $`\stackrel{~}{x}(t)`$ obeys the equation

$$\frac{m}{2}\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{x}}{t}\right)^2+V(\stackrel{~}{x})=E(\mathrm{region}3)$$
(57)
and has the form $`\stackrel{~}{x}(ti\tau _0)`$ (we omit a real time shift). Since, in the limit of an instant signal $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^21`$, the function $`x(t)`$ is almost continuous it follows that $`\tau _0\theta `$. Otherwise, the real $`x(t)`$ would jump going from (1) to (3).

The classical energy gain

$$\delta E=_C𝑑t(t)\frac{x}{t}$$
(58)
can be calculated by inserting Eq. (56) into Eq. (58). The result is

$$\delta E=\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{x}}{t}\right)_{i\theta }_C𝑑t(t)\frac{1}{2m}\left[_C𝑑t(t)\right]^2$$
(59)
Since, close to the point $`i\theta `$, $`\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Omega }^2t^2)\mathrm{exp}[\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^22i\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta (ti\theta )]`$ one can circle the contour $`C`$ around the point $`t=i\theta `$, which produces

$$\delta E=\left(\pi \theta e^{\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2}\right)\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{x}}{\tau }\right)_\theta +\frac{1}{2m}\left(\pi \theta e^{\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2}\right)^2$$
(60)
The velocity $`\stackrel{~}{x}/\tau `$ at $`\tau =\theta `$ is real and negative.

The duration (in the imaginary time) $`\theta `$ of the part (1) in Fig. 7(b) can be expressed through $`\delta E`$ according to the classical formula

$$\theta =\sqrt{\frac{m}{2}}_{x_0}^{x_1}\frac{dx}{\sqrt{V(x)E\delta E}}$$
(61)
Eq. (61), together with the boundary conditions $`V(x_1)=E+\delta E`$ and $`V(x_0)=E`$, determines the function $`\delta E(E,\theta )`$. At $`t=i\theta `$ the coordinate $`xx_0`$ and Eq. (55) results in

$$\delta E(E,\theta )=\frac{m}{2}\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{x}}{\tau }\right)_\theta ^2$$
(62)
It is remarkable that the value (62) coincides with the extreme of $`\delta E`$ in Eq. (60) reached at $`=_c(E,\theta )`$, where

$$\pi \theta _{ext}(E,\theta )\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2\right)=\sqrt{2m\delta E(E,\theta )}$$
(63)
The action has the form

$$A=2\sqrt{2}_{x_0}^{x_1}𝑑x\sqrt{V(x)E\delta E(E,\theta )}+2\theta \delta E(E,\theta );\left(=_{ext}(E,\theta )\right)$$
(64)
where the function $`\delta E(E,\theta )`$ is determined by Eq. (61). The condition $`A=0`$ defines the resonance energy $`E_R(\theta )`$ and Eq. (63) gives the threshold amplitude $`_T(\theta )=_{ext}(E_R(\theta ),\theta )`$

$$_T(\theta )=\frac{\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2\right)}{\pi \theta }\sqrt{2m\delta E(E_R(\theta ),\theta )}$$
(65)
If the signal amplitude is fixed, the expression (64) is valid only for one value of energy $`E=E_{ext}`$ which is determined by the equation $`=_{ext}(E,\theta )`$. If $`EE_{ext}`$ the method of trajectories cannot be used and one should solve the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. $`_{ext}`$ is analogous to the same parameter (44) and corresponds to the peak in the escape probability $`W`$ as in Fig. 5. One should note that whereas for a smooth potential the method of trajectories enables to obtain the result solely for one extreme energy, in the degenerated case of the singular potential (1) this method is applicable in an interval of energies. This is due to that for the singular potential (1) the maximum of $`W(E)`$ is sharp and the analog of the dashed curve of Fig. 8 coincides with the solid curve in Fig. 5. This does not mean the method of trajectories to be useless for a smooth potential since the energy $`E_{ext}`$ corresponds to a maximum of the escape rate and Eq. (64) determines the dashed line in Fig. 8. In the case of a smooth potential it is impossible to obtain an analytical solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation to get the preexponential factor in the expression for the decay rate $`W`$ as in the formula (19).

## IX SMOOTH POTENTIAL WELL IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

Eqs. (61) and (64) allow to solve the problem of tunneling under action of an instant signal for a general semiclassical potential $`V(x)`$. Let us consider a particular case of a smooth potential well in a weak electric field $`_0`$. This means that in Fig. 7(a) $`x_0x_1`$. In this situation one can use the approximation of triangular potential in Eq. (61) and (64)

$$A=\frac{4\theta }{3}\left[VE\delta E(E,\theta )\right]+2\theta \delta E(E,\theta );\theta =\frac{\sqrt{2m(VE\delta E)}}{_0}$$
(66)
The extreme electric field (63) is given by the formula

$$\frac{\pi }{_0}_{ext}(E,\theta )\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2\right)=\sqrt{1\frac{2m(VE)}{\theta ^2_0^2}}$$
(67)
and the action (64) has the form (43) with the definition of $`E_R`$ (45)

$$A=2\theta \left[(VE)\frac{\theta ^2_0^2}{6m}\right];(=_{ext}(E,\theta ))$$
(68)
The extreme value $`E_{ext}`$ in Fig. 8 is

$$E_{ext}=E_R\frac{\theta ^2_0^2}{2m}\left[\frac{2}{3}\left(\frac{\pi }{_0}e^{\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2}\right)^2\right]\mathrm{\Theta }\left(_T\right)$$
(69)
where $`E_R`$ is given by Eq. (45) and the threshold value of the signal amplitude is

$$\frac{\pi _T}{_0}\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2\right)=\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}}$$
(70)
If the energy level $`E`$ in the well is fixed, the decay rate $`W`$ is determined by Eq. (50) with the resonance value of the signal parameter $`\theta _R`$ given by Eq. (49).

The condition of applicability of the semiclassical approximation cannot be derived for a smooth potential with the all details, as the condition (30), since for this purpose one should know the solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Nevertheless, the typical feature of that condition $`(VE)t1`$, where $`t`$ is a characteristic time of the problem, can be used as an approximation. Since the typical time is $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta )^1`$, the semiclassical condition reads

$$\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2(VE)\theta $$
(71)
The condition (71) does not contradict to a big value of $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2`$ since in the semiclassical case $`(VE)\theta `$ is a big parameter.

## X OVER-BARRIER ESCAPE

A metastable state in a well can decay also by the over-barrier transition picking up a number of quanta necessary to reach the top of the barrier (in our case there is no a thermal activation). This process is competitive with tunneling under the barrier. Let us estimate the probability of the over-barrier escape. The Fourier component of the signal (54)

$$_\omega =\theta \mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\omega ^2}{4\mathrm{\Omega }^2}\right)_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{tdt}{t^2+\theta ^2}\mathrm{exp}\left[\mathrm{\Omega }^2\left(t\frac{i\omega }{2\mathrm{\Omega }^2}\right)^2\right]$$
(72)
is determined by the saddle contribution (the horizontal path $`\mathrm{Im}t=\omega /2\mathrm{\Omega }^2`$) and by the pole integration at $`t=i\theta `$, if $`\theta <\omega /2\mathrm{\Omega }^2`$

$$_\omega =i\pi \theta \mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2\omega \theta \right)\mathrm{\Theta }\left(\frac{\omega }{2\mathrm{\Omega }^2}\theta \right)+2i\sqrt{\pi }\frac{\omega \theta \mathrm{\Omega }}{\omega ^2(2\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta )^2}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\omega ^2}{4\mathrm{\Omega }^2}\right)$$
(73)
The probability of the over-barrier escape $`W_{ob}`$ is proportional to the absorption of $`N`$ quanta which can be estimated as $`(_\omega )^{2N}`$ and can be written schematically in the form

$$W_{ob}^{2N}\left\{\mathrm{exp}\left[2N(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2\omega \theta )\right]+\mathrm{exp}\left(2N\frac{\omega ^2}{4\mathrm{\Omega }^2}\right)\right\}$$
(74)
where $`N=(VE)/\omega `$ and we ignore an interference of the two contributions. Since the typical signal amplitude is $`\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2)`$, the probability (74) reads

$$W_{ob}\mathrm{exp}\left[2\theta (VE)\right]+\mathrm{exp}\left[2(VE)\left(\frac{\omega ^2}{4\mathrm{\Omega }^2}+\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2}{\omega }\right)\right]$$
(75)
The optimum frequency $`\omega =2\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta `$ in the second term produces the same exponent as the first one. Therefore, the probability of the over-barrier escape, stimulated by the signal (54), can be estimated as

$$W_{ob}\mathrm{exp}\left[2\theta (VE)\right]$$
(76)
The exponent in the expression (76) is of the same magnitude as the action $`A`$ far away from the resonance. For this reason, an escape mechanism under the action of the signal (54) is the tunneling process but not an over-barrier escape. From the mathematical point of view, it is understandable since the extreme of the action $`A`$ is provided by the negative energy gain $`\delta E`$ but not by $`\delta E=(VE)`$.

## XI MANIFESTATIONS OF THE EUCLIDEAN RESONANCE

In this section we point out some particular physical situations when specially adapted signals result or may result in a dramatically enhanced tunneling rate due to the Euclidean resonance.

### A Selective ionization of atoms

As a simplest example of the Euclidean resonance let us consider the ionization of the hydrogen atom by the signal (54). In this case one can use Fig. 7(a), considering the well to be extended in energy down to $`\mathrm{}`$. Suppose the constant electric field $`_0=2\times 10^7\mathrm{eV}/\mathrm{cm}`$. In this field the conventional tunneling rate is proportional to $`\mathrm{exp}\left(A_0\right)=\mathrm{exp}(76)`$, where $`A_0`$ is given by Eq. (22) and $`(VE)13.6\mathrm{eV}`$. This provides the decay time $`(VE)^1\mathrm{exp}\left(76\right)10^9\mathrm{years}`$. Under the action of the signal with the amplitude $`>_T`$, where the threshold field is given by Eq. (70), the Euclidean resonance occurs at

$$\theta _R=\frac{\sqrt{6m(VE)}}{_0}10^{14}\mathrm{s}$$
(77)
and the tunneling rate is determined by Eq. (50) which reads in this case

$$W10^{170(\theta _R\theta )/\theta _R}\mathrm{\Theta }\left(\theta _R\theta \right)$$
(78)
According to Eq. (47), $`(VE\delta E)=3(VE)`$. With the parameters chosen, $`x_1/x_0100`$ and the duration of the exit wave packet (48) is $`\delta t0.28\theta 2.8\times 10^{15}\mathrm{s}`$. Using the semiclassical condition (71), which now reads $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2200`$, one can take the signal parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2=15`$. This gives $`_T1.5\mathrm{eV}/\mathrm{cm}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^12.6\times 10^{15}\mathrm{s}`$. For a smaller constant electric field $`_0`$, the resonance value $`\theta _R`$ and the threshold signal amplitude $`_T`$ are also smaller. As follows from the relation (78), the uncertainty of the signal parameter $`\theta `$ should be approximately $`1\%`$ to be close to the resonance. When in the system there are a few types of atoms/molecules, one can make a selective ionization of a particular group of them.

### B Emission of electrons from a metallic surface

Electrons can tunnel from a metallic surface when an electric field $`_0`$ is applied perpendicular to it. In this case $`V`$ is the work function and $`E`$ can be at the Fermi energy or down. When the constant electric field is modulated by a successive set of signals (54) separated by the time interval of the order of $`\theta `$, there is the steady current of electrons distributed around the energy $`E+\delta E`$ with the relative accuracy of approximately $`A_0^1`$. The current density can be estimated as $`jenv_F/A_0`$, where $`n`$ is the electron density in the metal and $`v_F`$ is the Fermi velocity. For the parameters of Sec. XI(A), the steady electric current from the metal surface is $`j10^8\mathrm{A}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$. If to use Eq. (22) for $`A_0`$ the current density can be written in the form $`j=\sigma _0/e`$, where the conductivity is $`\sigma e^2n/m(VE)`$. When the metallic sample is connected to a circuit, its electroneutrality recovers faster comparing to the time (77).

### C Selective stimulation of chemical reactions

A variety of chemical and biochemical reaction are characterized by the potential barrier for electrons which separates the electron state of the energy $`E`$ before reaction and the state of the energy $`E_1`$ after reaction $`(E_1<E)`$ . Usually, the tunneling rate for chemical reactions is negligible and they occur by thermal activation through the barrier which requires, in many cases, a reduction by a catalyst. Tunneling, stimulated by the Euclidean resonance, can provide new possibilities for reactions which are impossible under conventional conditions. Under the conditions of the resonance, the exit energy $`E+\delta E`$ does not necessary coincides with $`E_1`$ but during the motion of molecules towards each other the energy parameters vary and at some distance the condition $`E+\delta E=E_1`$ can be encountered. Using the Euclidean resonance, one can select some particular bonds by the resonance to choose a type of reaction to be stimulated.

By this method one can control also some nonvalent molecular conversions such as internal rotations of a part of the molecule around a single bond, etc. In this case the Euclidean resonance stimulates tunneling of ions. For ionic tunneling the resonance $`\theta _R`$ is approximately two orders of magnitude bigger and $`_T`$ is smaller comparing to electron tunneling.

### D Stimulation of alpha-decay

In the problem of alpha-decay the potential energy of the alpha-particle and the nucleus is shown in Fig. 9, where the potential to the right of the nucleus has the form $`\beta /x`$ and the typical nucleus size is $`x_010^{13}\mathrm{cm}`$. The conventional decay rate is $`W\mathrm{exp}(A_0)`$, where

$$A_0=\pi \beta \sqrt{\frac{2m}{E}}$$
(79)
and $`m`$ is the mass of the alpha-particle . A properly adapted resonance signal can result in huge enhancement of alpha-decay. In a situation of the Euclidean resonance Eq. (61) reads (with $`x_00`$)

$$\theta =\frac{\pi }{4}\frac{\beta \sqrt{2m}}{(E+\delta E)^{3/2}}$$
(80)
The action (64) has the form

$$A=\left(3\pi \beta \sqrt{3m\theta }\right)^{2/3}2\theta E$$
(81)
At the Euclidean resonance $`(A=0)`$,

$$\theta _R=\pi \beta \sqrt{\frac{27m}{8E^3}};\frac{E+\delta E}{E}=\frac{1}{3}$$
(82)
where the energy $`E+\delta E`$ corresponds to the horizontal path in Fig. 9. The decay rate, within the exponential accuracy, is

$$W\mathrm{exp}\left(\sqrt{3}A_0\frac{\theta _R\theta }{\theta _R}\right)\mathrm{\Theta }\left(\theta _R\theta \right)$$
(83)
The threshold amplitude of the signal (65) is

$$_T=\frac{4\sqrt{2}}{9\pi ^2}\frac{E^2}{\beta }\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2\right)$$
(84)
For the decay $`\mathrm{Nd}_{60}^{144}\mathrm{Ce}_{58}^{140}+\alpha `$, one should take $`\beta =2\times 58e^2`$ and $`E=1.9\mathrm{MeV}`$. This gives $`\theta _R0.8\times 10^{19}\mathrm{s}`$, $`A_0177`$, and (with $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2=15`$) $`_T10^9\mathrm{eV}/\mathrm{cm}`$. These parameters unlikely are suitable for an experiment. Nevertheless, the situation may be different. The energy of an alpha-particle $`EE_0`$ is always in the Mev-scale and the experimentally observed $`E`$ varies approximately between 2 and 10 Mev for different nuclei. This does not exclude a situation when for some nuclei the energy of the alpha-particle $`E`$ can be of the order of 1KeV. Normally, alpha-decay of such nuclei hardly can be detected in a conventional way due to an extremely small decay rate since $`A_01.3\times 10^4`$ (79). But under the conditions of the Euclidean resonance for $`E=1\mathrm{K}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{v}`$, the resonance value is $`\theta _R10^{14}\mathrm{s}`$ (80) and one can obtain the flux of alpha-particles with the energy $`1/3\mathrm{K}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ and the approximate duration $`10^{15}\mathrm{s}`$ per one signal (48). One can take $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2=18`$ which gives $`_T20\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}`$ (83). The relative accuracy of the signal parameter $`\theta `$ near the resonance, according to Eq. (83), should be $`0.01\%`$ but $`\theta `$, of the order of ten femtoseconds, relates with experimental facilities. In this way, one can search nuclei exhibiting the soft alpha-decay.

## XII SIGNAL CONDITIONS

The signal shape (54) is not unique, nevertheless, we focus on this shape. The plot at $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2=15`$ is shown in Fig. 10 where the vertical and the horizontal axes correspond to $`(t)/`$ and $`t/\theta `$. A deviation of the signal from the dependence

$$\stackrel{~}{}(t)=\frac{t}{\theta }\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2t^2\right)$$
(85)
is less than $`10\%`$, however, the signal (85) does not lead to a Euclidean resonance, resulting only in a perturbative correction to the conventional formula $`W\mathrm{exp}(A_0)`$. From mathematical point of view, it is due to that the signal (85) does not have a pole at a complex time. We do not study here in full how fluctuations of the signal influence the resonance. For the resonance condition it should be $`(\theta _R\theta )/\theta _RA_0^1`$ (50) which determines the signal accuracy with respect to the parameter $`\theta `$.

The amplitude of the threshold signal $`_T`$ is proportional to $`\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2\right)`$. Due to the semiclassical condition (71), the parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2A_0^1`$ can be big for very non-transparent (without a non-stationary signal) barriers, leading to a very small threshold signal. In the limit of a non-transparent barrier $`(A_0=\mathrm{})`$, the amplitude of the threshold signal is $`=0`$. What is a restriction for this non-physical limit?

Every physical system, strictly speaking, is not Hamiltonian and the energy levels always have a finite width due to interaction with other subsystems. In the classical limit the equation of motion contains the friction coefficient $`\gamma `$

$$m\frac{^2x}{t^2}+m\gamma \frac{x}{t}+V^{}(x)=0$$
(86)
A physical origin of $`\gamma `$ depends on a particular situation. According to the theory of dissipative quantum mechanics of Caldeira and Leggett  (see also Ref. ), a friction disturbs the under-barrier motion resulting in the energy-loosing path (1a) shown in Fig. 7(a). The frictionless path (1) and the friction path (1a) correspond to the same time $`\theta `$ and, due to this, the energy gain $`\delta E`$ is less for the path (1a). This makes impossible the resonance condition $`(A=0)`$ when the friction becomes sufficiently big $`\gamma >\gamma _c`$. The approximate estimate of the critical friction is $`\gamma _c\theta ^1`$. Therefore, the Euclidean resonance exists for a dissipative system if the friction coefficient is not big

$$\gamma <\gamma _c\theta ^1$$
(87)
The threshold amplitude can be estimated in a general case as $`_T_0\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2\right)`$ where $`_0`$ is some typical electric field in the system. The restriction condition is

$$\mathrm{\Omega }^2\theta ^2(VE)\theta \frac{VE}{\gamma }$$
(88)
The main feature of the signal (54) is its Lorentzian shape which results in the poles at the complex time. The Gaussian modulation is not obligatory and results only to the strong reduction of the threshold amplitude $`_T`$. We do not consider here technical possibilities to tailor proper electromagnetic signals which should be in the approximate range of 1-100 fs. Recent achievements in formation of short signals are presented in Ref. .

## XIII DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The probability of tunneling through an almost classical static barrier is exponentially small, according to the general principles of quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, a particle can penetrate through a very non-transparent barrier under the action of the specially adapted signal of an external field. The signal parameters select the particle energy $`E_R`$. For particle energies close to this resonance value, the tunneling rate is not small during some finite interval of time and has a very sharp peak at the resonance energy $`E_R`$. The width of the peak $`(E_RE)/E_RA_0^1(E_R)`$ is connected to the static action $`A_0(E_R)`$ which can be of the order of hundred or even bigger for a very non-transparent barrier. After entering inside the barrier the particle emits electromagnetic quanta and exit the barrier with a lower energy. It is reasonable to call this phenomenon the Euclidean resonance since the motion occurs in imaginary (complex) time.

The Euclidean resonance can have various applications to the problems where quantum tunneling is an essential process. For example, chemical and biochemical reactions occur by thermal activation over a potential barrier which, in many cases, should be lowered by a catalyst. The potential chemical conversions, which cannot be realized due to high barriers, may get run by the effect of the Euclidean resonance. Since the resonance peak is very sharp, one can use the effect for selective stimulation of chemical reactions adapting the signal to some particular chemical bond(s). Another possible application of the Euclidean resonance is search of the soft alpha-decay when emitting alpha-particles have the energy in the interval of 0.1-10 KeV. The duration of the required signal is in the range 1-10 fs and the amplitude is of the order of 1-10 eV/cm. The soft alpha-decay, if it exists, cannot be observed in the conventional way due to extremely small decay rate.

The phenomenon of the Euclidean resonance may occur not only in tunneling processes but also in the over-barrier reflection of particles in quantum mechanics  and in classical reflection of macroscopic waves (electromagnetic, acoustic, etc.) from a spatially-smooth medium . All these effects constitute a class of the Stokes phenomena since in a static case they have the common mathematic feature: the classical turning point generates the Stokes lines  where a jump of the sub-dominant (exponentially small) solution occurs.

###### Acknowledgements.

I am grateful to J. Engelfried for providing the experimental data on alpha-decay.