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arXiv:hep-th/9503135 · Talk given at

QUANTUM DISSIPATION AND COHERENCE

Giuseppe Vitiello

Published Mar 21, 1995• 1 citation
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Abstract

We discuss dissipative systems in Quantum Field Theory by studying the canonical quantization of the damped harmonic oscillator (dho). We show that the set of states of the system splits into unitarily inequivalent representations of the canonical commutation relations. The irreversibility of time evolution is expressed as tunneling among the unitarily inequivalent representations. Canonical quantization is shown to lead to time dependent SU(1,1) coherent states. We derive the exact action for the dho from the path integral formulation of the quantum Brownian motion developed by Schwinger and by Feynman and Vernon. The doubling of the phase-space degrees of freedom for dissipative systems is related to quantum noise effects. Finally, we express the time evolution generator of the dho in terms of operators of the $q$-deformation of the Weyl-Heisenberg algebra. The $q$-parameter acts as a label for the unitarily inequivalent representations.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.hep-th/9503135

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We discuss dissipative systems in Quantum Field Theory by studying the canonical quantization of the damped harmonic oscillator (dho). We show that the set of states of the system splits into unitarily inequivalent representations of the canonical commutation relations. The irreversibility of time evolution is expressed as tunneling among the unitarily inequivalent representations. Canonical quantization is shown to lead to time dependent SU(1,1) coherent states. We derive the exact action for the dho from the path integral formulation of the quantum Brownian motion developed by Schwinger and by Feynman and Vernon. The doubling of the phase-space degrees of freedom for dissipative systems is related to quantum noise effects. Finally, we express the time evolution generator of the dho in terms of operators of the qqq-deformation of the Weyl-Heisenberg algebra. The qqq-parameter acts as a label for the unitarily inequivalent representations.
The formalism of Quantum Mechanics is based by definition on conserving probabilities and thus there is no room for the description of dissipative systems in Quantum Mechanics. The treatment of time-irreversible evolution (the arrow of time) is therefore ruled out by definition in Quantum Mechanics. In Quantum Field Theory it is, however, possible to describe time-irreversible evolution by resorting to the existence of infinitely many unitarily inequivalent representations of the canonical commutation relations (ccr). In this paper I review such a result by discussing the canonical quantization of the damped harmonic oscillator (dho), a prototype of dissipative systems. The irreversibility of time evolution is expressed as tunneling among the unitarily inequivalent representations. The exact action for the dho is derived in the path integral formalism of the quantum Brownian motion developed by Schwinger and by Feynman and Vernon. The doubling of the phase-space degrees of freedom for dissipative systems is related to quantum noise effects. Finally, the role of dissipation in the quantum model of the brain and the occurrence that the cosmological arrow of time, the thermodynamical one and the biological one point into the same direction are shortly mentioned.
A previously developed novel theory for the formal canonical quantization of classically dissipating systems will be the starting point for a detailed discussion of the quantum statistical aspects of the simple linearly damped harmonic oscillator. The formalism essentially involves complex classical canonical coordinates and momenta, and thus quite naturally leads to the possibility of creation and annihilation operators. Furthermore, the occurrence of quantal noise operators appears to be of principal importance for the conservation of the fundamental commutator in the course of time, as will be expressed in a simple fluctuation-dissipation relation. Making a canonical transformation back to the real, Cartesian Hermitian position and momentum an "effective" Hermitian Hamiltonian will be derived, with which a transformation is made from the Heisenberg frame to the Schr\"odinger frame where the density operator equation will be computed. This will make it obvious that no proper Schr\"odinger equation exists for the dissipative subsystem on its own, thus reflecting an incomplete knowledge. The master equation will then be translated into its Wigner representation. The intimate connection between the diffusion coefficients in the resulting Fokker-Planck equation and the uncertainty relation will be demonstrated in a clear fashion.
A model independent generalization of quantum mechanics, including the usual as well as the dissipative quantum systems, is proposed. The theory is developed deductively from the basic principles of the standard quantum theory, the only new qualitative assumption being that we allow the wave operator at time t of a quantum system to be non-differentiable (in t) in the usual sense, but only in an appropriately defined (Sec. 5) stochastic sense. The resulting theory is shown to lead to a natural generalization of the usual quantum equations of motion, both in the form of the Schrödinger equation in interaction representation (Sec. 6) and of the Heisenberg equation (Sec. 8). The former equation leads in particular to a quantum fluctuation-dissipation relation of Einstein’s type. The latter equation is a generalized Langevin equation, from which the known form of the generalized master equation can be deduced via the quantum Feynmann-Kac technique (Secs. 9 and 10). For quantum noises with increments commuting with the past the quantum Langevin equation defines a closed system of (usually nonlinear) stochastic differential equations for the observables defining the coefficients of the noises. Such systems are parametrized by certain Lie algebras of observables of the system (Sec. 10). With appropriate choices of these Lie algebras one can deduce generalizations and corrections of several phenomenological equations previously introduced at different times to explain different phenomena. Two examples are considered: the Lie algebra [q, p]=i (Sec. 12), which is shown to lead to the equations of the damped harmonic oscillator; and the Lie algebra of SO(3) (Sec. 13) which is shown to lead to the Bloch equations. In both cases the equations obtained are independent of the model of noise. Moreover, in the former case, it is proved that the only possible noises which preserve the commutation relations of p, q are the quantum Brownian motions, commonly used in laser theory and solid state physics.
In this paper we use the algebraic and the invariant method to study the time-dependent damped harmonic oscillator from classical and quantum points of view. The solution of the classical equation of motion and the wavefunction solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation are found explicitly. We show that the original time-dependent quantum-mechanical problem is completely related to the well known time-independent harmonic oscillator. In addition, we elucidate the intimate connection between the damped harmonic oscillator (DHO) and the generalized harmonic oscillator (GHO). More importantly, the evolution of the states of the DHO cannot be cyclic, in contradistinction with the states of the GHO. Explicit expressions for both the dynamical and the geometric angles and phases are deduced in the adiabatic limit. The coherent states describing the invariant-angle variables of the classical DHO are constructed; they allow us to recover the classical evolution and invariant from the quantum evolution.
The dissipative models in string theory can have more broad range of application: 1) Noncritical strings are dissipative systems in the "coupling constant" phase space. 2) Bosonic string in the affine-metric curved space is dissipative system. But the quantum descriptions of the dissipative systems have well known ambiguities. In order to solve the problems of the quantum description of dissipative systems we suggest to introduce an operator W in addition to usual (associative) operators. The suggested operator algebra does not violate Heisenberg algebra because we extend the canonical commutation relations by introducing an operator W of the nonholonomic quantities in addition to the usual (associative) operators of usual (holonomic) coordinate -momentum functions. To satisfy the generalized commutation relations the operator W must be nonassociative nonLieble (does not satisfied the Jacobi identity) operator. As the result of these properties the total time derivative of the multiplication and commutator of the operators does not satisfies the Leibnitz rule. This lead to compatibility of quantum equations of motion for dissipative systems and canonical commutation relations. The suggested generalization of the von Neumann equation is connected with classical Liouville equation for dissipative systems.
We consider the Fermi quantization of the classical damped harmonic oscillator (dho). In past work on the subject, authors double the phase space of the dho in order to close the system at each moment in time. For an infinite-dimensional phase space, this method requires one to construct a representation of the CAR algebra for each time. We show that unitary dilation of the contraction semigroup governing the dynamics of the system is a logical extension of the doubling procedure, and it allows one to avoid the mathematical difficulties encountered with the previous method.