Friction and dissipative phenomena in quantum mechanics

F. Guinea

Yang Wang, Yu Jia

Roumen Tsekov

The effect of nonlinear friction forces in quantum mechanics is studied via dissipative Madelung hydrodynamics. A new thermo-quantum diffusion equation is derived, which is solved for the particular case of quantum Brownian motion with a cubic friction. It is extended also by a chemical reaction term to describe quantum reaction-diffusion systems with nonlinear friction as well.

Roumen Tsekov

Ángel S. Sanz, R. Mart, Germán A. Rojas-Lorenzo

Classical viscid media are quite common in our everyday life. However, we are not used to find such media in quantum mechanics and much less to analyze their effects on the dynamics of quantum systems. Here we provide a Bohmian analysis of the friction dynamics led by hypothetical quantum viscid media, which will be simulated by means of the so-called Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian. As it is shown, this causal model enables a better understanding of phenomena, such as quantum localization (“quantum freezing”) or the quantum-to-classical transition. We have analyzed these phenomena in a series of paradigmatic situations of quantum mechanics, such as free wave-packet evolution, motion in a linear potential, damped harmonic oscillator and interference dynamics.