Decoherence, tunneling and noise-activation in a double-potential well at high and zero temperature

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We study the effects of the environment on tunneling in an open system described by a static double-well potential. We describe the evolution of a quantum state localized in one of the minima of the potential at t=0, both in the limits of high and zero environment temperature. We show that the evolution of the system can be summarized in terms of three main physical phenomena, namely decoherence, quantum tunneling and noise-induced activation, and we obtain analytical estimates for the corresponding time-scales. These analytical predictions are confirmed by large-scale numerical simulations, providing a detailed picture of the main stages of the evolution and of the relevant dynamical processes.