Quantum Optics Journal of the European Optical Society Part B
Onset of non-Markovian behaviour in a harmonic oscillator stochastically coupled to a thermal bath
Santiago Velasco, Juan A. White
Abstract
The influence of a finite bath correlation time and the bath temperature on the onset of a non-Markovian behaviour in the relaxation of a harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a coloured thermal bath is analysed. A fully quantum mechanical treatment of the time autocorrelation function of the oscillator-bath interaction is made. Special attention is paid to the temperature dependence. In the low-temperature regime a non-exponential time decay of the mean number of quanta is found even though the correlation time associated with the oscillator-bath interaction is zero.