Is Quantum Tunneling the Key to Life and existence of the Universe?

What is this mysterious quantum tunneling effect, where does it come from? And why is it one of the most important phenomena in physics?

Quantum mechanics shows that quantum objects have a wave-particle duality. What we think of as an electron particle actually behaves like a wave, a probability wave. This means that its position is not a precise location in space. It is defined by a wave function that can only tell us the probability of finding it a particular location when measured. The wave function of a particle exists in all of space, in the entire universe up to infinity. So there is always a non-zero probability of finding the electron anywhere, including outside a barrier.

We can attribute this behavior to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. It states that the uncertainty in a particle’s position times the uncertainty in its momentum has to be greater than a finite number. Practically this means we cannot know with 100% certainty what the position of that electron is. And the wave function of the electron, which gives us the probability of finding it at any location can be found using the Schrodinger equation.

This equation was developed by Erwin Schrödinger in 1926, and it is the equation that describes the wave nature of matter. The Greek letter psi in the equation is the wave function. The wave function depends on both time and position. It can be both positive or negative, but the square is always positive. The square of the wave function as a function of position is the probability of finding the particle at that position. The Schrödinger equation is a statement of conservation of energy. It says that kinetic energy plus potential energy equals the total energy—But instead of just energies, we have energy operators acting on the wave function of the particle.

For a particle inside a box with a wall of finite thickness and height, we can solve the wave function inside the box, in the barrier and also outside the barrier. We find that the amplitude is non-zero within and outside the barrier. So, it can has some probability of being outside the box.

This doesn't work for large objects like a tennis ball because the wave function depends on several factors, like the thickness & height of the barrier, and the mass of the particle. For macro size objects, the mass is so large, and the thicknesses of the barriers so great that the wave function will have an extremely small value, making the probability extremely small.

If you do a rough calculation for my hand to tunnel through the wall, the probability is about 10^-40 – more zeros than atoms in my body (10^28). This is statistically though not physically impossible.

Tunneling has huge implications in nature and technology. For example, transistors in electronic devices have a source on one side, and a gate to control the flow of electrons to the drain on the other side. If the gate is too thin, the electrons just tunnel straight though, ruining our circuit. This is why transistor can't get much smaller, which is a roadblock for developing better electronic devices.
#quantumtunneling
Quantum tunneling is responsible for the sun shining. Stars shine due to nuclear fusion. The sun fuses the nuclei of hydrogen atoms together to form helium. Tunneling is essential because hydrogen nuclei composed of positively charged protons repel each other. In order for them to come together, they have to overcome this extremely strong repulsion, called the coulomb potential. Because of quantum tunneling, the probability for this process to occur, becomes much more likely because the two nuclei can tunnel through this barrier. If it weren’t for quantum tunneling, most stars may never have ignited.

The universe itself may have come to be because of Tunneling. The big mystery is what gave the big bang the kick that it needed in order to overcome the energy required to counteract attractive forces like gravity.

This is not well understood, and not proven, but according to calculations made by physicist Alexander Vilenkin, the probability that the universe could overcome the energy barrier needed for inflation to occur and the big bang to result, is not zero even at the limit of the universe being size zero – that is having no space and no time - a universe from nothing!

[yusufmunir]

I like the way this man makes extremely difficult concepts seem easy by always focussing on the big picture. The big picture is always important to him

[AJD...]

Arvin is like a physicist big brother that I never had. I could talk to him forever and ever.

[MidianVGC]

Her : The chances I go out with you are the same as me being on Mars at this very moment.
Virgin quantum physicist : So, you're telling me there's a chance?

[nareshlathia]

I read this, Quantum Tunneling, at my age of 15. This was while reading about how a transistor worked. This was in 1965. The mystery has been solved at last in a simple language. Thank you to Arvin Ash.

[asunasposibol]

It always puzzles me how fast we forget about the greatness of the universe in our daily life

[mikeedwards]

I have enjoyed your videos for a loving time I am glad to see someone with talent that spreads understandable science on YouTube that’s finally getting the following you deserve. You have always followed up with comments and we appreciate you!

[danieltolson]

Coincidentally, non-zero is also the odds of me ever understanding quantum mechanics.

[johnhawthorne]

At 4:00 in describing Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, Ash says it depicts that “we cannot know with 100% certainty what the position of [any mass] is”.

It’s not a matter of “knowing”. QM implies that there no such thing as absolute position to begin with till you measure it in which case the position resolves (via the apparent collapse of the wave function or splitting into another universe as per two dominant theories trying to make sense of this).

This property of QM then transcends our everyday usage of “knowing” which would imply that the universe knows a truth (an absolute position in this case) that we cannot perceive, to a meta-level implication that there is no truth to begin with and that the universe creates the truth (the absolute position in this case) at the time of measurement to confirm to a probabilistic function.

This is what makes QM fairly trippy.

[omargaber]

I love you when you say "the explanation is coming up right after this" and thank you for adding arabic language in translation❤❤❤

[channagirijagadish]

Arvin's explanations are incredible. I like that he does not dumb it down ignoring theoretical foundations. I am very appreciative of this approach.

[timearly]

I'm going to watch this a bunch more times and wait for some of it to tunnel into my skull.

[Keefs_c.c.]

Have to admit, couldn’t understand this stuff for the life of me when I was still in school. But as an adult I still find interest in it and hearing it come from someone with such a respectful soft spoken voice makes it that much easier to listen to. Thanks for all your hard work Sir!

[Mckeycee]

Blessing us with quality content on a Saturday!

[MegaNancyLover]

I would just like to say, your method of delivering this information makes understanding all this a lot more intuitive than how other people tend to explain this!

[luccabaialuna]

Bro imagine u get in a fight and the other guy's punch just phases through you and ur like: "Thank you quantum mechanics"

[ik]

Finally, a good explanation of how Homer Simpson was walking through the walls of a Japanese house.

[gavenanderson]

You are great at explaining things simply it’s fantastic. Also love the calm demeanor.I only sub to a channels with great content and all I needed for this channel was 4 minutes. Have a blessed existence to all!

[stabilini]

you nailed it again... no doubt about this channel: one of the best on internet.

[jeromebarry]

The horizontal gate in your diagram was the situation when I entered the industry in 1983. By the time I left the industry in 2018, topologies had become so tiny that new geometric arrangements of terminals was necessary. The 'fin" type of transistor was discovered to have a much higher barrier against tunneling while consequently reducing the amount of leakage current to such minimal levels that the much more densely packed microprocessors could operate for a day on smaller batteries. The reason all that computational power fits in your smartphone is the fin transistor.

[augijyotbali]

" Universe may be born by itself "
We should be independent
mr.universe