The soluble model of an oscillator coupled to a scalar field is used as an example of irreversible behavior. By studying the reduced density operator for the oscillator, a generalized Fokker-Planck-Kramers-Chandrasekhar equation for the Wigner distribution function is derived. The diagonal matrix elements of the reduced density operator satisfy a generalized non-Markovian master equation. By application of a time-averaged method, the ordinary Pauli master equation is derived. The time evolution of the occupation probabilities of the oscillator levels has been numerically computed, and compared with the solutions of the Pauli equation.
The soluble model of an oscillator coupled to a scalar field is used as an example of irreversible behavior. By studying the reduced density operator for the oscillator, a generalized Fokker-Planck-Kramers-Chandrasekhar equation for the Wigner distribution function is derived. The diagonal matrix elements of the reduced density operator satisfy a generalized non-Markovian master equation. By application of a time-averaged method, the ordinary Pauli master equation is derived. The time evolution of the occupation probabilities of the oscillator levels has been numerically computed, and compared with the solutions of the Pauli equation.
We analyze the irreversible behavior of a quantum harmonic oscillator immersed in an arbitrary thermal reservoir. For the fully coupled (FC) model, i.e., the coupling between subsystems linear in the coordinate of the oscillator, we construct a generalized master equation for the reduced density operator of the oscillator. We apply the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) and investigate its connection with the FC master equation. By means of the Wigner distribution, we obtain the corresponding Fokker-Planck equations in the semiclassical representation. We find that, when the RWA is not imposed, the correct classical limit is obtained (Kramer's equation). Then, we establish the conditions for the equivalence between the FC Fokker-Planck equation and that obtained in the RWA. Quantum maps for a kicked oscillator immersed in a heat bath are obtained in both cases. These maps are studied in the classical and semiclassical limits, and it is shown that they coincide for low kicking frequency compared to the damping rate.
The theory of Brownian motion of a quantum oscillator is developed. The Brownian motion is described by a model Hamiltonian which is taken to be the one describing the interaction between this oscillator and a reservoir. Use is made of the master equation recently derived by the author, to obtain the equation of motion for the various reduced phase-space distribution functions that are obtained by mapping the density operator onto c-number functions. The equations of motion for the reduced phase-space distribution functions are found to be of the Fokker-Planck type. On transforming the Fokker-Planck equation to real variables, it is found to have the same form as the Fokker-Planck equation obtained by Wang and Uhlenbeck to describe the Brownian motion of a classical oscillator. The Fokker-Planck equation is solved for the conditional probability (Green's function) which is found to be in the form of a two-dimensional Gaussian distribution. This solution is then used to obtain various time-dependent quantum statistical properties of the oscillator. Next, the entropy for a quantum oscillator undergoing Brownian motion is calculated and we show that this system approaches equilibrium as $t\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$. Finally we show that in the weak-coupling limit the Fokker-Planck equation reduces to the one obtained by making the usual rotating-wave approximation.
Understanding the behavior of a quantum system coupled to its environment is of fundamental interest in the general field of quantum technologies. It also has important repercussions on foundational problems in physics, such as the process of decoherence and the so-called quantum measurement problem. There have been many approaches to explore Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics within the framework of open quantum systems, but the richness of the ensuing dynamics is still not fully understood. In this paper we develop a non-Markovian extension of the standard Caldeira-Leggett model, based on expanding the dynamics of the reduced system at high temperature in inverse powers of the high-frequency cutoff of the Ohmic spectral density of the environment and derive a non-Markovian master equation for the reduced density matrix for the case of a general potential. We also obtain a fully analytical solution in the free particle case. While the short-time behavior of this solution does not diverge substantially from the Markovian behavior, at intermediate times we find a resurgence of coherence, which we name lateral coherence. We identify this with a corresponding transient negative entropy production rate, which is understood to be characteristic of non-Markovian dynamics. We also analyze the positivity of the reduced density matrix and derive the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation in the classical limit.
An original method to exactly solve the non-Markovian master equation describing the interaction of a single harmonic oscillator with a quantum environment in the weak-coupling limit is reported. By using a superoperatorial approach, we succeed in deriving the operatorial solution for the density matrix of the system. Our method is independent of the physical properties of the environment. We show the usefulness of our solution deriving explicit expressions for the dissipative time evolution of some observables of physical interest for the system, such as, for example, its mean energy.
Recent progress in our understanding of quantum effects on the Brownian motion in an external potential is reviewed. This problem is ubiquitous in physics and chemistry, particularly in the context of decay of metastable states, for example, the reversal of the magnetization of a single domain ferromagnetic particle, kinetics of a superconducting tunnelling junction, etc. Emphasis is laid on the establishment of master equations describing the diffusion process in phase space analogous to the classical Fokker-Planck equation. In particular, it is shown how Wigner's [E. P. Wigner, Phys. Rev., 1932, 40, 749] method of obtaining quantum corrections to the classical equilibrium Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution may be extended to the dissipative non-equilibrium dynamics governing the quantum Brownian motion in an external potential V(x), yielding a master equation for the Wigner distribution function W(x,p,t) in phase space (x,p). The explicit form of the master equation so obtained contains quantum correction terms up to o(h(4)) and in the classical limit, h --> 0, reduces to the classical Klein-Kramers equation. For a quantum oscillator, the method yields an evolution equation coinciding in all respects with that of Agarwal [G. S. Agarwal, Phys. Rev. A, 1971, 4, 739]. In the high dissipation limit, the master equation reduces to a semi-classical Smoluchowski equation describing non-inertial quantum diffusion in configuration space. The Wigner function formulation of quantum Brownian motion is further illustrated by finding quantum corrections to the Kramers escape rate, which, in appropriate limits, reduce to those yielded via quantum generalizations of reaction rate theory.
Positivity preservation is naturally guaranteed in exact non-Markovian master equations for open quantum system dynamics. However, in many approximated non-Markovian master equations, the positivity of the reduced density matrix is not guaranteed. In this paper we provide a general class of time-local, perturbative, and positivity-preserving non-Markovian master equations generated from stochastic Schr\"odinger equations, particularly quantum-state-diffusion equations. Our method has an expanded range of applicability for accommodating a variety of non-Markovian environments. We show the positivity-preserving master equation for a three-level system coupled to a dissipative bosonic environment as a particular example to exemplify our general approach. We illustrate the numerical simulations with an analysis explaining why the previous approximated non-Markovian master equations cannot guarantee positivity. Our work provides a consistent master equation for studying the non-Markovian dynamics in ultrafast quantum processes and strong-coupling systems.