We consider the quantum tunneling phenomenon in a well-behaved triple-well
potential. As required by the semiclassical approximation we take into acco
unt the quadratic fluctuations over the instanton which represents as usual
the localised finite-action solution of the Euclidean equation of motion.
The physical effects of the multi-instanton configurations are included in
this approach. We obtain information about the energies of the ground state
and the two first excited levels of the discrete spectrum at issue. (C) 20
01 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.