Resonant tunneling and inelastic scattering: A general approach

Many aspects of the problem of resonant tunneling through double potential barriers, recently discussed by Bar-Joseph and Gurvitz [I. Bar-Joseph and S. A. Gurvitz, Phys. Rev. B 44, 3332 (1991)] are mathematically equivalent to problems arising in other areas of physics and, in particular, resonance scattering in nuclear and particle physics. A general formulation is presented that clarifies these common features and enables a translation of well-known results in one domain into the language familiar in the others. A stationary description with energy eigenstates is used, and its relation with the complementary time-dependent description is discussed.