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Canadian Journal of Physics

On the derivation of the Pauli and van Hove master equations

K. M. van Vliet

Published Sep 1, 1978• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We discuss the derivation of the Pauli master equation, based on a repeated random phase assumption, and of van Hove's result, based on an initial random phase assumption. For the former we indicate a derivation which is closer to the general approach of stochastic theory than Pauli's original method. For the van Hove result, we show that the diagonal and nondiagonal parts of the evolution operator of the Schrödinger or von Neumann equation are readily obtained by Zwanzig's projection operator method.

DOI
10.1139/p78-161

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We discuss the derivation of the Pauli master equation, based on a repeated random phase assumption, and of van Hove's result, based on an initial random phase assumption. For the former we indicate a derivation which is closer to the general approach of stochastic theory than Pauli's original method. For the van Hove result, we show that the diagonal and nondiagonal parts of the evolution operator of the Schrödinger or von Neumann equation are readily obtained by Zwanzig's projection operator method.
Techniques previously developed for deriving a master equation to general order in the perturbation for the transition probability are now applied to the interference term. A master equation to general order for the partial interference term is obtained, which, in the limit of small perturbation, leads to a Pauli master equation for the interference term itself. The long-time behavior of the interference term is discussed. By means of these results, a complete master equation can be written without any random phase assumption. The ergodic behavior of a quantum many-body system is demonstrated for a large class of physical quantities, and the approach to microcanonical equilibrium is discussed. (auth)
Using the recently discussed quantum dynamics in phase space, we derive a master equation, starting from the phase-space equivalent to the Schr\"odinger equation of motion for the density operator. Use is made of Zwanzig's projection-operator techniques and some explicit realizations of the projection operators are given. The master equation is then applied to show that the time-correlation functions, as defined in the text, satisfy an integral equation of the Volterra type. Next, a master equation for a system interacting with a large system is derived. As an illustration, we determine the lowest-order Born approximation and carry out a short-memory-approximation calculation for an oscillator coupled to a reservoir and for a two-level system interacting with an oscillator heat bath; we obtain equations of the Fokker-Planck type. Some physical implications of these equations are also discussed.
We present a derivation of the Markovian master equation by the renormalization group method. Starting from a naive perturbative solution of the von Neumann equation, the reduced density matrix with the coarse grained time steps is obtained using the assumption of short correlation time of the bath field. Then by applying the renormalization group method, we show that the dependence of the specific initial time on the perturbative solution can be removed and the Markovian semigroup master equation in the Gorini--Kossakowski--Lindblad--Sudarshan (GKLS) form is obtained in the weak coupling limit.
Recently a generalized master equation was derived that extends the Lindblad theory to highly non-Markovian quantum processes [H.-P. Breuer, Phys. Rev. A 75, 022103 (2007)]. We perform a stochastic unraveling of this master equation by considering nnn random state vectors that satisfy the corresponding stochastic differential equation for a piecewise deterministic process. As an application we consider a two-state system randomly coupled to an environment consisting of two energy bands with finite number of levels. Our numerical results are compared to results obtained from the time-convolutionless projection operator method using correlated projection superoperators and the exact solution of the Schr\"odinger equation for this system.