paper

Hartman Effect from a Geometrodynamic Extension of Bohmian Mechanics

arXiv:2401.16162 · doi:10.1016/j.aop.2025.170226

Abstract

This paper develops a geometrodynamic extension of Bohmian mechanics to describe quantum tunneling through a potential barrier, treating particle trajectories as geodesics in an Alcubierre-type spacetime. The model provides analytical expressions for the quantum potential, particle dynamics, and tunneling time, explicitly linked to the underlying spacetime geometry. For narrow barriers, the tunneling time depends on the barrier width, while for sufficiently wide barriers, it saturates to a constant value-recovering the Hartman effect. This behavior arises from a geometric self-regulation mechanism, where the quantum potential dynamically adjusts the spacetime distortion to maintain a fixed tunneling time, consistent with relativistic causality despite effective superluminal propagation. The results establish a direct connection between quantum tunneling and spacetime geometry, offering a unified framework to interpret the Hartman effect. This approach naturally incorporates relativistic constraints while suggesting that similar geometric mechanisms may underlie other quantum phenomena, such as topological phases in condensed matter systems.

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