The lifetime of decaying quantum states depends on the strength of the coupling that causes decay. The research team led by Professor Christiane Koch has used only a few basic quantum mechanical concepts to demonstrate that an interference effect can dominate this process.

Due to a phase condition, the lifetimes of quantum mechanical resonance states can vary over several orders of magnitude. This theoretical prediction was confirmed by two experiments carried out by collaboration partners at the Weizmann Institute.

The research results were published in the journal "Nature Communications".