When a particle is made to confine more and more to a particular position it breaks the energy barrier to get out because of the uncertainty principle. But, from where does the particle get the energy required to do so? Does its mass get converted into energy?
In that case consider a particle in a potential well equal to $mc^2$ where $m$ is the mass of the particle. Then to pass the energy barrier its whole mass is to be converted into energy so that the uncertainty principle is satisfied. So, a particle loosing all its mass and transforming into energy to get out of the potential well and again transforming into a particle.That's weird and I think it's not the case.
Does it undergo quantum tunneling during the escape process? In that case from where does that instantaneous increase in energy come from?
Note:I'm a high school student and I'm introduced only to basic quantum mechanics( just Bohr model and orbitals) in my school. Maybe the whole thing that I asked here is foolish. Sorry for that in that case.
Best Answer
The energy does not change. The quantum mechanical solution of the potential problem with a barrier is such that it gives a probability for each specific energy level to go through the barrier .
In this explanation one sees a free particle reaching the barrier, and how the probabilities change, but not the energy:
Thus no extra energy is needed, but a lot of patience :) , because the probabilities are small usually and either one has to study a large number of the same conditions, or be in wait for the phenomenon.
Tunneling has been used to evaluate nuclear decays, for example the Polonium alpha decay lifetime :