Quasibound states in the continuum in a two channel quantum wire with an adatom

We report the prediction of quasibound states (resonant states with very long lifetimes) that occur in the eigenvalue continuum of propagating states for certain systems in which the continuum is formed by two overlapping energy bands. We illustrate this effect using a quantum wire system with two channels and an attached adatom. When the energy bands of the two channels overlap, a would-be bound state that lays just below the upper energy band is slightly destabilized by the lower energy band and thereby becomes a resonant state with a very long lifetime (a second such state lays above the lower energy band). Unlike the bound states in continuum predicted by von Neumann and Wigner, these states occur for a wide region of parameter space.