Time-Loop Formalism for Irreversible Quantum Problems: Steady State Transport in Junctions with Asymmetric Dynamics
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2011-05-12 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory
Atomic Physics
Quantum Physics
Abstract
Non-unitary quantum mechanics has been used in the past to study irreversibility, dissipation and decay in a variety of physical systems. In this letter, we propose a general scheme to deal with systems governed by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We argue that the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism gives a natural description for those problems. To elucidate the method, we study a simple model inspired by mesoscopic physics --an asymmetric junction. The system is governed by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian which captures essential aspects of irreversibility.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0710.0036,
title = {Time-Loop Formalism for Irreversible Quantum Problems: Steady State Transport in Junctions with Asymmetric Dynamics},
author = {Paata Kakashvili and C. J. Bolech},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.0036},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures