Phys. Rev. A 58, 2721 - 2732 (1998)

Quantum Fokker-Planck theory in a non-Gaussian-Markovian medium

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YiJing Yan
Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Received 4 December 1997; revised 1 June 1998

We develop a generalized quantum Fokker-Planck theory in a non-Gaussian-Markovian model bath. The semiclassical bath adopted in this work is charactered by three parameters. One denotes the strength of system-bath coupling and the other two are chosen to interpolate smoothly the solvation dynamics between the long- and short-time regimes. The fluctuation-dissipation relation in this model bath is analyzed in detail. Based on this model bath, we derive two sets of coupled Fokker-Planck equations. These two equation sets are equivalent in the second order of system-bath coupling but different in the higher orders. The corresponding reduced Liouville equation in one set of the Fokker-Planck formulation is characterized by a memory relaxation kernel, while that in the other is by a local-time relaxation tensor. Each resulting set of Fokker-Planck equations involves only the reduced density operator and a series of well-characterized Hilbert-space relaxation operators. The present theory is valid for arbitrary time-dependent Hamiltonians and is applicable to the study of quantum coherence and relaxation in various dynamic systems.


©1998 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.58.2721
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.58.2721
PACS: 03.65.Sq, 05.30.-d, 05.40.+j, 82.20.Fd

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