The stationary phase condition applicability to the study of tunnel effect

Abstract

Some recent theoretical studies have tended to employ analytically-continuous {\em gaussian}, or infinite-bandwidth step pulses to examine tunneling process. The stationary phase method is often employed to this aim. However, {\em gaussian} functions do not have a well-defined front, such that their speed of propagation becomes ambiguous. Also, infinite bandwidth signals cannot propagate through any real physical medium (whose transfer function is therefore finite) without pulse distortion, which also leads to ambiguities in determining propagation velocity during the tunneling process. In this manuscript, we appoint some incompatibilities with the application of the method of stationary phase in deriving tunneling times which, eventually, can ruin the {\em superluminal} interpretation of transition times.