Tempi di Tunnelling (Tunneling Times)

Abstract

In this review (in Italian) we critically and detaily examine various definitions existing in the literature for the tunnelling times: namely, the phase-time; the centroid-based times; the Buttiker and Landauer times; the Larmor times; the complex (path-integral and Bohm) times; the dwell time, and the generalized (Olkhovsky and Recami) dwell time, with some numerical evaluations. Then, we pass to examine the equivalence between quantum tunnelling and "photon tunnelling" (evanescent waves propagation), with particular attention to tunnellings with Superluminal group-velocities ("Hartman effect"). At last, the main (Cologne, Berkeley, Florence, Vienna) experimental data about Superluminal evanescent wave propagation are briefly reviewed.