Progress of Theoretical Physics
A Fresh Look at the BCK Frictional Lagrangian
V Jayaram Menon, Namrata Chanana, Yashwant Singh
Abstract
A suitable contact transformation is carried out on the original Bateman-Caldirola-Kanai (BCK) Lagrangian of a quantum dissipative particle. The resulting theory is found to obey standard principles of quantum mechanics. Also, the relevant path integrals are easy to compute, and they lead to a correct description of both the lumped state motion as well as the Brownian probability (at high temperature) of the damped harmonic oscillator.