Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

12-12-2005

Abstract

A wide variety of dissipative and fluctuation problems involving a quantum system in a heat bath can be described by the independent-oscillator (10) model Hamiltonian. Using Heisenberg equations of motion, this leads to a generalized quantum Langevin equation (QLE) for the quantum system involving two quantities which encapsulate the properties of the heat bath. Applications include: atomic energy shifts in a blackbody radiation heat bath; solution of the problem of runaway solutions in QED; electrical circuits (resistively shunted Josephson barrier, microscopic tunnel junction, etc.); conductivity calculations (since the QLE gives a natural separation between dissipative and fluctuation forces); dissipative quantum tunneling; noise effects in gravitational wave detectors; anomalous diffusion; strongly driven quantum systems; decoherence phenomena; analysis of Unruh radiation and entropy for a dissipative system.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

First Page

206

Last Page

219

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