Wigner time delay and Hartman effect in quantum motion along deformed Riemannian manifolds

Abstract

Elastic scattering of a wave can be quantified by a shift in the phase with respect to the incoming wave phase. A qualitative measure of the time during which the effect occurs is given by the Wigner time delay. The tunneling time in turn is known to saturate with increasing tunneling barrier width (Hartman effect). Here, we analyze the elastic quantum mechanical scattering in a deformed one-dimensional Riemannian manifold, particularly with respect to the Wigner time delay and conclude on the Hartman effect. It is shown that scattering due to local curvature variations imply imperfect conduction behavior indicating resonance states and leads to a Wigner time delay which, at low energies, is in variance with the classical time delay that is inferred from the arc length. At moderate and high energies, however, classical and quantum time delays coincide.