Hermitian and non-Hermitian formulations of the time evolution of quantum decay

Abstract

This work discusses Hermitian and non-Hermitian formulations for the time evolution of quantum decay, that involve respectively, continuum wave functions and resonant states, to show that they lead to an identical description for a large class of well behaved potentials. Our approach is based on the analytical properties of the outgoing Green's function to the problem in the complex wave number plane.