Quantum electric field fluctuations and potential scattering

Some physical effects of time averaged quantum electric field fluctuations are discussed. The one loop radiative corrections to potential scattering are approximately derived from simple arguments which invoke vacuum electric field fluctuations. For both above barrier scattering and quantum tunneling, this effect increases the transmission probability. It is argued that the shape of the potential determines a sampling function for the time averaging of the quantum electric field operator. We also show that there is a nonperturbative enhancement of the transmission probability which can be inferred from the probability distribution for time averaged electric field fluctuations. The same method should be useful in understanding the effects of large quantum stress tensor fluctuations, which cannot be treated in perturbation theory.