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Cambridge University Press eBooks

Classical stochastic systems

Alex Kamenev

Published Sep 8, 2011• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to the classical limit of the quantum dissipative action obtained in Chapter 3. We show how it yields Langevin, Fokker–Planck and optimal path descriptions of classical stochastic systems. These approaches are used to discuss activation escape, fluctuation relation, reaction models and other examples. Classical dissipative action In Section 3.2 we derived the Keldysh action for a quantum particle coupled to an Ohmic environment, Eq. (3.20). If only linear terms in the quantum coordinate X q (t) are kept in this action, it leads to a classical Newtonian equation with a viscous friction force, Eq. (3.21). Such an approximation completely disregards any fluctuations: both quantum and classical . Our goal now is to do better than that and to keep classical thermal fluctuations, while still neglecting quantum effects. To this end it is convenient to restore the Planck constant ħ in the action and then take the limit ħ → 0. For dimensional reasons, the factor ħ -1 should stay in front of the entire action. To keep the part of the action responsible for the classical equation of motion (3.21) free from the Planck constant it is convenient to rescale the quantum component as X q → ħ X q . Indeed, when this is done all terms linear in X q do not contain ħ. Finally, to have the temperature in energy units, one needs to substitute T with T /ħ.

DOI
10.1017/cbo9781139003667.005

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Introduction The apparent generality of the title to this chapter is appropriately reduced by sufficiently precisely defining the terms used. We have in mind the natural extension to quantum mechanical settings of the ideas usually covered in a discussion of stochastic processes in classical mechanical settings. In classical mechanical settings, the fundamental process is Brownian motion, which describes the influence of external fluctuating forces on a small particle. The mathematical apparatus developed for the study of Brownian motion has been generalized and applied to irreversible thermodynamics (Onsager and Machlup, 1953), fluctuating hydrodynamics (Fox and Uhlenbeck, 1970), light scattering from fluids and mixtures (Berne and Pecora, 1976) and chemical reactions (McQuarrie and Keizer, 1981). In each case, the stochastic process involves fluctuations generated by thermal motions. We are not considering the stochastic trajectories (chaos) of classically deterministic motion in non-linear systems (Lichtenberg and Lieberman, 1983), which is an entirely separate context for stochastic processes. Our goal in this chapter is to study the effects of thermal fluctuations in quantum mechanical settings. Therefore, we exclude a discussion of interpreting quantum mechanics as a classical stochastic motion (Nelson, 1966), an idea which should have been put to rest by Grabert, Hänggi and Talkner (1979). We also exclude a discussion of quantum chaos, which is currently a very active area of research (Zaslavsky, 1981). Just as Brownian motion provides the paradigm for stochastic processes in classical mechanical settings, the Anderson–Kubo oscillator (Anderson, 1954; Kubo, 1954; Kubo, Toda and Nashitsume, 1985) is the paradigm for stochastic processes in quantum mechanical settings.
We explore some aspects of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of classical and quantum systems. Two chapters are devoted to fluctuation theorems which were originally derived for classical systems. The main challenge in formulating them in quantum mechanics is the fact that fundamental quantities of interest, like work, are defined via the classical concept of a phase space trajectory. We utilize the decoherent histories conceptual framework, in which classical trajectories emerge in quantum mechanics as a result of coarse graining, and provide a first-principles analysis of the nonequilibrium work relation of Jarzynski and Crooks's fluctuation theorem for a quantum system interacting with a general environment based on the quantum Brownian motion (QBM) model. We indicate a parameter range at low temperatures where the theorems might fail in their original form. Fluctuation theorems of Jarzynski and Crooks for systems obeying classical Hamiltonian dynamics are derived under the assumption that the initial conditions are sampled from a canonical ensemble, even though the equilibrium state of an isolated system is typically associated with the microcanonical ensemble. We address this issue through an exact analysis of the classical Brownian motion model. We argue that a stronger form of ensemble equivalence than usually discussed in equilibrium statistical mechanics is required for these theorems to hold in the infinite environment limit irrespective of the ensemble used, and proceed to prove it for this model. An exact expression for the probability distribution of work is obtained for finite environments. Intuitively one expects a system to relax to an equilibrium state when brought into contact with a thermal environment. Yet it is important to have rigorous results that provide conditions for equilibration and characterize the equilibrium state. We consider the dynamics of open quantum systems using the Langevin and master equations and rigorously show that under fairly general conditions quantum systems interacting with a heat bath relax to the equilibrium state defined as the reduced thermal state of the system plus environment, even in the strong coupling regime. Our proof is valid to second-order in interaction strength for general systems and exact for the linear QBM model, for which we also show the equivalence of multi-time correlations. In the final chapter we give a sampling of our investigations into macroscopic quantum phenomena. We work out in detail a specific example of how and under what conditions the center of mass (CoM) coordinate of a macroscopic object emerges as the relevant degree of freedom. Interaction patterns are studied in terms of the couplings they induce between the CoM and relative coordinates of two macroscopic objects. We discuss the implications of these interaction patterns on macroscopic entanglement.
Abstract We propose a Langevin equation to describe the quantum Brownian motion of bounded particles based on a distinctive formulation concerning both the fluctuation and dissipation forces. The fluctuation force is similar to that employed in the classical case. It is a white noise with a variance proportional to the temperature. The dissipation force is not restricted to be proportional to the velocity and is determined in a way as to guarantee that the stationary state is given by a density operator of the Gibbs canonical type. To this end we derived an equation that gives the time evolution of the density operator, which turns out to be a quantum Fokker–Planck–Kramers equation. The approach is applied to the harmonic oscillator in which case the dissipation force is found to be non Hermitian and proportional to the velocity and position.
densitymatrixofaquan-tumsystemcomposedofoneormanyparticlessubjectedtoaconservativeforcefieldand interacting with a thermal bath has been derived. This result is achieved byanalogy with classical models based upon the Langevin and Fokker-Planck equa-tions. According to the Langevin approach, the interaction is modelled by meansof a random force field and a viscous friction term. We generalise this classicalapproach introducing suitable operators that describe the quantum evolution of asystemweaklycoupledtoathermalbath. Inparticular,wedefineakindoffrictionoperator thatcan be thoughtas the quantalcounterpartof the classical Langevintermcorrespondingtotheviscousforce. Theproposedapproachhastheinvaluableadvantageofyieldingahandydifferentialequationtomodelthequantuminteractionbetweenasystemandathermalbath.PACS42.50.Lc–Quantumfluctuations,quantumnoise,andquantumjumps.PACS05.30–Quantumstatisticalmechanics.PACS05.70.Ln–Nonequilibriumandirreversiblethermodynamics.PACS05.10.Gg–Stochasticanalysismethods(Fokker-Planck,Langevin,etc.).