1995/08/04 by J. J. Halliwell, T. Yu, Ting Yu · 1 citation
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Brownian motion #Classical mechanics #Law #Lindblad equation #Master equation #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Path integral formulation #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum decoherence #Quantum master equation #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Zhàng #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.53.2012
published as Phys.Rev. D53 (1996) 2012-2019 · 17 pages, Revtex
arxiv created 1995/08/04 · openalex publication_date 1996/02/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Hu, Paz, and Zhang [B. L. Hu, J. P. Paz, and Y. Zhang, Phys. Rev. D 45, 2843 (1992)] have derived an exact master equation for quantum Brownian motion in a general environment via path integral techniques. Their master equation provides a very useful tool to study the decoherence of a quantum system due to the interaction with its environment. In this paper, we give an alternative and elementary derivation of the Hu-Paz-Zhang master equation, which involves tracing the evolution equation for the Wigner function. We also discuss the master equation in some special cases. \textcopyright 1996 The American Physical Society.