The reader may gather from Chapters 4 to 6 that the sequence in which we developed the classical formalism of diffusion was to first introduce the equation of motion for dynamical variables. This was achieved through Langevin equations for position and momentum. Diffusive effects were incorporated through heat bath-induced thermal noise and systematic damping parameters. This approach follows the Heisenberg picture of quantum mechanics in which the operators evolve in time whereas the wave function stays constant. Contrast this with the Schrödinger picture in which the wave functions are taken to satisfy the time-dependent Schrödinger equation while the operators remain frozen in time.
The reader may gather from Chapters 4 to 6 that the sequence in which we developed the classical formalism of diffusion was to first introduce the equation of motion for dynamical variables. This was achieved through Langevin equations for position and momentum. Diffusive effects were incorporated through heat bath-induced thermal noise and systematic damping parameters. This approach follows the Heisenberg picture of quantum mechanics in which the operators evolve in time whereas the wave function stays constant. Contrast this with the Schrödinger picture in which the wave functions are taken to satisfy the time-dependent Schrödinger equation while the operators remain frozen in time.
We first point out that nonrelativistic quantum mechanics formulated at imaginary time s = it can formally be recognized as the Fokker-Planck description of a classical Brownian motion, which occurs (in general) in a medium where particles are absorbed and emitted. We next offer a new formulation of quantum dynamics, which is basically the Langevin treatment of that Brownian motion. More explicitly, we derive a noise average representation of the transition probability W ( X", s"|X', s' ) in terms of the solutions to a Langevin equation with a Gaussian white noise. Upon analytic continuation back to real time W ( X", s"|X', s' ) becomes the propagator of the original Schrödinger equation, namely we have ⟨ X", t"|X', t' ⟩ = W ( X", it"|X', it' ). The main advantage of this approach is to permit a systematic application to quantum-dynamical problems of the mathematical techniques developed in the theory of classical stochastic processes, even when vector potentials and/or time-dependent potentials are present.
The process of diffusion constitutes the dissipative motion of a classical particle or group of particles subjected to many-body interactions with their surroundings. When the surroundings consist of an infinitely large system that can rapidly recover from any deviation from thermal equilibrium such that its temperature remains roughly uniform, the system qualifies as a heat bath. Further, when the degrees of freedom of the heat bath are integrated out because of the implied timescale separation, the dynamics of the subsystem appear dissipative, characterized by parameters such as friction coefficient, diffusion constant, and others.
Abstract The second chapter introduces the notion of wave functions and their equation of motion proposed by Erwin Schrödinger. The interpretation and normalization of the wave function are discussed, leading to the continuity equation. The chapter also introduces basic mathematical operations that can be carried out for wave functions and operators, describing e.g., how to calculate scalar products and commutators, as well as expectation values and variances of observables. With these tools at hand, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is re-examined, focusing on the example of a Gaussian wave packet, which is studied both in position space and momentum space. We also discuss the time evolution of general states and of the exemplary wave packet. Finally, we will see how classical physics is recovered as a limiting case of the quantum-mechanical description
The Brownian motion of a particle coupled to a heat bath can be derived from an exactly solvable many-body system. This motion is governed by the Langevin equation in Newtonian mechanics, and by an operator equation formally identical to the Langevin equation when the system composed of the particle plus the heat bath is quantized. To get this formal similarity between the classical and the quantal equations of motion of the particle, the classical dissipative system is formulated in terms of a modified Hamilton–Jacobi equation and is then quantized using the Schrödinger method. The result is identical with the Schrödinger–Langevin equation that has been obtained by quantizing the entire system and then isolating the motion of the particle. The non-linear wave equation describing the motion of a particle subject to conservative and time-dependent forces as well as frictional forces has been applied to the problems of motion of a wave-packet, and of the scattering and trapping of heavy-ions.
The conventional approach to quantum mechanics begins with the classical Hamiltonian and changes observables to noncommuting operators. Canonically conjugate observables have to be noncommuting operators in order to satisfy the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The dynamics of a quantum mechanical system is given by the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. In the early 1940s Feynman realized that it would be possible to construct a quantum model using the classical Lagrangian approach (a method closely related to the action integral). Dirac had earlier pointed out that eit times the Lagrangian was analogous to a transformation function for the wave function in which the wave function at one instant could be related to the wave function at a next instant in a time interval of t by multiplying with such an exponential function. Feynman found the exponential phase factor to be the action S which is the time integral of the Lagrangian. Further, he noticed that it was necessary to perform integrals over all space variables at every instant of time to find the transition amplitudes. He developed a way for describing and evaluating the integration using the idea of integral over all paths. In Feynman’s approach, the particles are described using amplitudes calculated along the paths they may or may not follow. These amplitudes behave like waves, their phase changes as the quantum system moves along the path and the amplitudes for all paths superpose and interfere. This interference between all paths is called as sum-over-histories and the resulting amplitude is connected in the same way that the amplitude of a wave function is linked to probability as magnitude-squared.
We again note that Langevin equations written for observables (– operators in quantum mechanics) conform to the Heisenberg view. On the other hand, an entity that embodies the wave function of the Schrödinger picture is the von Neumann density operator, usually denoted by t( )ρ , whose classical counterpart is the probability distribution function (pdf) discussed earlier. It is helpful to introduce a formalism for the pdf completely at par with the Langevin description. The resultant Fokker-Planck (FP) equations serve as the subjects of this chapter. The simplest FP equation can be derived from the master equation (2.25) for a stationary Markov process, as shown below (Agarwal 1983, Risken 1996).