Tunneling time in attosecond experiments and time operator in quantum mechanics

Abstract

Attosecond science is of a fundamental interest in physics. The measurement of the tunneling time in attosecond experiments, offers a fruitful opportunity to understand the role of time in quantum mechanics (QM). We discuss in this paper our tunneling time model in relation to two time operator definitions introduced by Bauer and Aharonov-Bohm. We found that both definitions can be generalized to the same type of time operator. Moreover, we found that the introduction of a phenomenological parameter by Bauer to fit the experimental data is unnecessary. The issue is resolved with our tunneling model by considering the correct barrier width, which avoids a misleading interpretation of the experimental data. Our analysis shows that the use of the so-called classical barrier width, to be precise, is incorrect.