INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM TUNNELLING
The quantum tunnelling effect is, as in the name, a quantum phenomenon which occurs when particles move through a barrier that should be impossible to move through according to classical physics. This barrier or blockade can be any kind of physical medium which cannot be passed, like an insulator for electrons or a vacuum, or it can be a region of high potential energy. For example just like Vision phasing through walls.
In classical mechanics, if a particle does not have the energy to overcome a potential barrier, it simply won't. In the quantum world, however, particles can often behave like waves. On encountering a barrier, a quantum wave will not end abruptly - its amplitude will decrease exponentially like as if it knows that there is something blocking it, ie. like as we know that a door is blocking you. This drop in amplitude corresponds to a drop in probability of finding a particle as you look further into the barrier. So there is a finite probability that some of the particles will tunnel through the barrier as if you opening the door to get through.
This phenomenon has baffled scientists for many decades.
Quantum Tunnelling around us
Although, like much of quantum physics, tunnelling may appear to have little relevance to everyday life, but it is a fundamental process of nature which is responsible for many things on which life itself is dependant.
It has even been hypothesised that the very beginning of the universe was caused by a tunnelling event, allowing the universe to pass from a "state of no geometry" (no space or time) to a state in which space, time, matter, and life could exist.
- Vamsi K
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