Decay in a uniform field: an exactly solvable model

R. M. Cavalcanti, P. Giacconi, R. Soldati

Published 2003-07-30, updated 2003-11-18Version 3

We investigate the time evolution of the decay (or ionization) probability of a D-dimensional model atom (D=1,2,3) in the presence of a uniform (i.e., static and homogeneous) background field. The model atom consists in a non-relativistic point particle in the presence of a point-like attractive well. It is shown that the model exhibits infinitely many resonances leading to possible deviations from the naive exponential decay law of the non-decay (or survival) probability of the initial atomic quantum state. Almost stable states exist due to the presence of the attractive interaction, no matter how weak it is. Analytic estimates as well as numerical evaluation of the decay rates are explicitly given and discussed.