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SU(2) instantons with boundary jumps and spin tunneling in magnetic molecules
Ersin Keçecioğlu1, Anupam Garg
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Abstract:
Coherent state path integrals are shown in general to contain instantons with jumps at the boundaries, i.e., boundary points lying outside classical phase space. Inclusion of these instantons is shown to resolve the "missing quench paradox" in the magnetic molecule Fe8, i.e., the fact that the tunneling between the ground Zeeman states of this molecule is quenched at only four magnetic field values, instead of the ten that would be expected from the topological Berry phase between interfering instantons. An approximate formula is found for the location of the four remaining quenches.
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