Master Equation for a Quantum Particle in a Gas

2006/07/31 by Klaus Hornberger · 92 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Master equation #Particle (ecology) #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum mechanics #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.97.060601

published in Physical Review Letters 97(6), 060601 (American Physical Society) · 5 pages; published version

openalex publication_date 2006/08/07 · arxiv created 2006/09/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The equation for the quantum motion of a Brownian particle in a gaseous environment is derived by means of S-matrix theory. This quantum version of the linear Boltzmann equation accounts nonperturbatively for the quantum effects of the scattering dynamics and describes decoherence and dissipation in a unified framework. As a completely positive master equation it incorporates both the known equation for an infinitely massive Brownian particle and the classical linear Boltzmann equation as limiting cases.

Citations

• Test particle in a quantum gas
• Quantum theory of friction
• Monte Carlo wave-function method in quantum optics
• Theory of decoherence in a matter wave Talbot-Lau interferometer
• Quantum description of Einstein’s Brownian motion

Cited by

• Quantum angular momentum diffusion of rigid bodies
• Instantaneous and dynamical decoherence
• Quantum Darwinism in an Everyday Environment: Huge Redundancy in Scattered Photons
• Introduction to Decoherence Theory
• Quantum linear Boltzmann equation with finite intercollision time
• Models of wave-function collapse, underlying theories, and experimental tests