This only serves to heighten a personal long-held belief of the truth underlying an extension of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the de-Broglie wave-particle duality of matter (although wave-particle theories may also be applied to anti-matter - this remains for research and evaluation) - treating the electron as a wave-packet (i.e. the electron is essentially very similar to a photon) rather than as a discrete particle presents a more accurate analogy of what is clearly happening here at the quantum level.
Here's the postulate: Imagine a spectrum of wave-particle intermediary properties (with wave properties at one end of the spectrum and particle properties at the other). Any matter/anti-matter phenomenal entity may be depicted as occupying a position on this spectrum (i.e. define a wave-particle (W-P) function such that we have a function of ~0/100 wave-particle (W-P) for infinitely large masses; 100/0 W-P coefficient for photons (and other luxon family members)]. Electrons may thus be hypothesized to occupy a position on this spectrum correlating to a function of ~99.98/0.02 W-P coefficient. Hence although often perceived to be discrete particles orbiting the nucleus of an atom in defined orbitals, it is essential to recognize this naive and stereotypical definition of electrons as only accounting for the much smaller 0.02 fraction of the W-P function. Thus several properties of electrons (including this tunneling effect) may now be explained in terms of typical wave interactions to account for the 0.98 fraction of the W-P function underlying electronic nature in this respect (i.e. electrons now perceived as waves interact with the wave-like properties of the barrier (via wave-like phase interactions e.g. electron-barrier constructive/destructive interference) and trespass it as a wave (rather than as a particle which needs to gain momentum/energy to surpass a barrier or which needs to bore through a barrier). No appreciable time delay is noted for traditional wave-like phenomena (such as superimposition, etc. of photons) to occur, so why then should electron (or should we now say electron-wave) interactions require a time-lag to pass through this barrier?

Shiraz Kaderuppan - 17.12.08

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