Coarse-grained kinetic equations for quantum systems

Murray Gell‐Mann, James B. Hartle

The origin of the phenomenological deterministic laws that approximately govern the quasiclassical domain of familiar experience is considered in the context of the quantum mechanics of closed systems such as the universe as a whole. A formulation of quantum mechanics is used that predicts probabilities for the individual members of a set of alternative coarse-grained histories that decohere, which means that there is negligible quantum interference between the individual histories in the set. We investigate the requirements for coarse grainings to yield decoherent sets of histories that are quasiclassical, i.e., such that the individual histories obey, with high probability, effective classical equations of motion interrupted continually by small fluctuations and occasionally by large ones. We discuss these requirements generally but study them specifically for coarse grainings of the type that follows a distinguished subset of a complete set of variables while ignoring the rest. More coarse graining is needed to achieve decoherence than would be suggested by naive arguments based on the uncertainty principle. Even coarser graining is required in the distinguished variables for them to have the necessary inertia to approach classical predictability in the presence of the noise consisting of the fluctuations that typical mechanisms of decoherence produce. We describe the derivation of phenomenological equations of motion explicitly for a particular class of models. Those models assume configuration space and a fundamental Lagrangian that is the difference between a kinetic energy quadratic in the velocities and a potential energy. The distinguished variables are taken to be a fixed subset of coordinates of configuration space. The initial density matrix of the closed system is assumed to factor into a product of a density matrix in the distinguished subset and another in the rest of the coordinates. With these restrictions, we improve the derivation from quantum mechanics of the phenomenological equations of motion governing a quasiclassical domain in the following respects: Probabilities of the correlations in time that define equations of motion are explicitly considered. Fully nonlinear cases are studied. Methods are exhibited for finding the form of the phenomenological equations of motion even when these are only distantly related to those of the fundamental action. The demonstration of the connection between quantum-mechanical causality and causality in classical phenomenological equations of motion is generalized. The connections among decoherence, noise, dissipation, and the amount of coarse graining necessary to achieve classical predictability are investigated quantitatively. Routes to removing the restrictions on the models in order to deal with more realistic coarse grainings are described.

Alexander I. Akhiezer, S. V. Peletminskiǐ

Hazime Mori, John Ross

A derivation of the quantum-mechanical analog of the Maxwell-Boltzmann equation of transport for gases at low density is presented. The analysis requires: the definition of a time differential which is necessary for the selection of only secular variations in the time dependence of the distribution functions (coarse-graining in time); a binary collision approximation; the connection between the phase-space transformation function, relating the Wigner distribution function at different times, and the transition matrix in the theory of scattering of two particles; and a coarse graining in configuration space leading to a kinetic equation for spatially nonuniform systems. A consequence of the binary collision approximation is the exclusion of the effects of symmetrization (Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac statistics) resulting in density-dependent terms.

A. N. Temchin

G. O. Balabanyan

Vinay Ambegaokar

Abstract The Feynman‐Vernon, Caldeira‐Leggett model for a quantum dissipative system is used, via a general kinetic equation due to Chow, Browne, and the present author, to cast light on the classical limit of quantum Brownian motion, with special attention paid to the requirement of coarse graining in time.