On Path Observables in Open Quantum Systems
J. Peÿsek
Abstract
We d iscuss several scenarios for breaking the time-reversal symmetry in quantum dissipative systems. We show that already on the level of semi-classical open systems weakly coupled to its environment, a repeated measurement of 'non-classical' observables leads to modified relations between the irreversibility of the process and the amount of dissipation. Our results are obtained by analyzing the decoherence functional of a simple two-level model and its behavior under time-reversal.