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arXiv:cond-mat/9805023 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

Quantal Brownian motion - dephasing and dissipation

Doron Cohen

Published Oct 9, 1998• 14 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We analyse quantal Brownian motion in d dimensions using the unified model for diffusion localization and dissipation, and Feynman-Vernon formalism. At high temperatures the propagator possesses a Markovian property and we can write down an equivalent master equation. Unlike the case of the Zwanzig-Caldeira-Leggett model, genuine quantum mechanical effects manifest themselves due to the disordered nature of the environment. Using Wigner's picture of the dynamics we distinguish between two different mechanisms for destruction of coherence: scattering perturbative mechanism and smearing non-perturbative mechanism. The analysis of dephasing is extended to the low-temperature regime by using a semiclassical strategy. Various results are derived for ballistic, chaotic, diffusive, both ergodic and non-ergodic motion. We also analyse loss of coherence at the limit of zero temperature and clarify the limitations of the semiclassical approach. The condition for having coherent effect due to scattering by low-frequency fluctuations is also pointed out. It is interesting that the dephasing rate can be either larger or smaller than the dissipation rate, depending on the physical circumstances.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/31/40/013

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We analyse quantal Brownian motion in d dimensions using the unified model for diffusion localization and dissipation, and Feynman-Vernon formalism. At high temperatures the propagator possesses a Markovian property and we can write down an equivalent master equation. Unlike the case of the Zwanzig-Caldeira-Leggett model, genuine quantum mechanical effects manifest themselves due to the disordered nature of the environment. Using Wigner's picture of the dynamics we distinguish between two different mechanisms for destruction of coherence: scattering perturbative mechanism and smearing non-perturbative mechanism. The analysis of dephasing is extended to the low-temperature regime by using a semiclassical strategy. Various results are derived for ballistic, chaotic, diffusive, both ergodic and non-ergodic motion. We also analyse loss of coherence at the limit of zero temperature and clarify the limitations of the semiclassical approach. The condition for having coherent effect due to scattering by low-frequency fluctuations is also pointed out. It is interesting that the dephasing rate can be either larger or smaller than the dissipation rate, depending on the physical circumstances.
We analyze quantal Brownian motion in ddd dimensions using the unified model for diffusion localization and dissipation, and Feynman-Vernon formalism. At high temperatures the propagator possess a Markovian property and we can write down an equivalent Master equation. Unlike the case of the Zwanzig-Caldeira-Leggett model, genuine quantum mechanical effects manifest themselves due to the disordered nature of the environment. Using Wigner picture of the dynamics we distinguish between two different mechanisms for destruction of coherence. The analysis of dephasing is extended to the low temperature regime by using a semiclassical strategy. Various results are derived for ballistic, chaotic, diffusive, both ergodic and non-ergodic motion. We also analyze loss of coherence at the limit of zero temperature and clarify the limitations of the semiclassical approach. The condition for having coherent effect due to scattering by low-frequency fluctuations is also pointed out. It is interesting that the dephasing rate can be either larger or smaller than the dissipation rate, depending on the physical circumstances.
A model that generalizes the study of quantum Brownian motion (BM) is constructed. We consider disordered environment that may be either static (quenched), noisy or dynamical. The Zwanzig-Caldeira-Leggett BM model formally constitutes a special case where the disorder autocorrelation length is taken to be infinite. Alternatively, a localization problem is obtained if the noise autocorrelation time is taken to be infinite. Also the general case of weak nonlinear coupling to a thermal, possibly chaotic bath is handled by the same formalism. A general, Feynman-Vernon type path-integral expression for the propagator is introduced. A Wigner transformed version of this expression is utilized in order to facilitate comparison with the classical limit. It is demonstrated that nonstochastic genuine quantal manifestations are associated with the model. It is clarified that such effects are absent in the standard BM model, either the disorder or the chaotic nature of the bath are essential. Quantal correction to the classical diffusive behavior is found even in the limit of high temperatures. The suppression of interference due to dephasing is discussed, leading to the observation that due to the disorder the decay of coherence is exponential in time, and no longer depends on geometrical considerations. Fascinating non-Markovian effects due to time-correlated (colored) noise are explored. For this, a strategy is developed in order to handle the integration over paths. This strategy is extended in order to demonstrate how localization comes out from the path-integral expression.
We generalize the classical theory of Brownian motion so as to reckon with non-Markovian effects on both Klein-Kramers and Smoluchowski equations. For a free particle and a harmonic oscillator, it is shown that such non-Markovian effects account for the differentiability of the Brownian trajectories as well as the breakdown of the energy equipartition of statistical mechanics at short times in some physical situations. This non-Markovian approach is also extended to look at anomalous diffusion. Next, we bring in the dynamical-quantization method for investigating open quantum systems, which does consist in quantizing the classical Brownian motion starting directly from our non-Markovian Klein-Kramers and Smoluchowski equations, without alluding to any model Hamiltonian. Accordingly, quantizing our non-Markovian Klein-Kramers in phase space gives rise to a non-Markovian quantum master equation in configuration space, whereas quantizing our non-Markovian Smoluchowski equation in configuration space leads to a non-Markovian quantum Smoluchowski equation in phase space. In addition, it is worth noticing that non-Markovian quantum Brownian motion takes place in presence of a generic environment (e.g. a non-thermal quantum fluid). As far as the special case of a heat bath comprising of quantum harmonic oscillators is concerned, a non-Markovian Caldeira-Leggett master equation and a thermal quantum Smoluchowski equation are derived and extended to bosonic and fermionic heat baths valid for all temperatures.
We develop a non-Markovian extension to the caldeira-leggett master equation for quantum Brownian motion by using the timescale of the bath as a small parameter around which to perform a perturbative expansion. This framework allows us to deal directly with the time non-locality of the non-Markovian regime. We derive an exact description of the evolution of the reduced density matrix and obtain a new quantum master equa- tion with non-Markovian corrections added perturbatively to the standard Lindblad form. The resulting simulations show new dynamics and a strong deviation from Markovian behaviour. We observe that quantum coherences survive far longer than in the Marko- vian limit. In particular, when the system is fully non-Markovian, quantum phenomena experience a form of decoherence that behaves functionally like an inverse-power law. These results may have important implications in quantum technologies and biology as they suggest environments can be engineered to support long-lived quantum coherence.
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.