A Quantum Description of Brownian Motion and the RC Circuit
Statistical Mechanics
2007-05-23 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Abstract
An equation for the reduced density matrix which describes a free particle, that is interacting with a linearly dissipative medium, is derived using the total Hamiltonian, and without resorting to any artificial model. A Master equation is also obtained for the dissipative medium. The theory erases the notion of the reservoir. It is shown that the dynamical interaction with the medium is not completely determined by the friction constant (or the corresponding fluctuation-dissipation relation). Unexpectedly, through the density-density correlation, the longitudinal dielectric function is shown to play a critical role.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0104084,
title = {A Quantum Description of Brownian Motion and the RC Circuit},
author = {W. H. Richardson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0104084},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
9 pages, 1 figure