Master Equation for Electromagnetic Dissipation and Decoherence of Density Matrix
Condensed Matter
2009-10-31 v1
Abstract
We set up a forward--backward path integral for a point particle in a bath of photons to derive a master equation for the density matrix which describes electromagnetic dissipation and decoherence. As an application, we recalculate the Weisskopf-Wigner formula for the natural line width of an atomic state at zero temperature and find, in addition, the temperature broadening caused by the decoherence term.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0011486,
title = {Master Equation for Electromagnetic Dissipation and Decoherence of Density Matrix},
author = {Z. Haba and H. Kleinert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0011486},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Author Information under http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/institution.html . Latest update of paper (including all PS fonts) at http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/kleiner_re316/preprint.html