Quantum Dissipative Systems

Download or read book Quantum Dissipative Systems written by Ulrich Weiss and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 1993-03-27 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the statistical mechanics and dynamics of open quantum systems moving irreversibly under the influence of a dissipative environment. The basic concepts and methods are described on the basis of a microscopic description with emphasis on the functional integral approach. The general theory for the time evolution of the density matrix of the damped system is developed. Many of the sophisticated ideas in the field are explained with simple models. The discussion includes, among others, the interplay between thermal and quantum fluctuations, quantum statistical decay, macroscopic quantum tunneling and quantum coherence.