Quantum-Classical Wigner-Liouville Equation

We consider a quantum system that is partitioned into a subsystem and a bath. Starting from the Wigner transform of the von Neumann equation for the quantum-mechanical density matrix of the entire system, the quantum-classical Wigner-Liouville equation is obtained in the limit where the masses M of...

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Bibliographic Details
Date:2005
Main Authors: Kapral, R., Sergi, A., Капрал, Р., Сергі, А.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institute of Mathematics, NAS of Ukraine 2005
Online Access:https://umj.imath.kiev.ua/index.php/umj/article/view/3641
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Journal Title:Ukrains’kyi Matematychnyi Zhurnal
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Ukrains’kyi Matematychnyi Zhurnal
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Summary:We consider a quantum system that is partitioned into a subsystem and a bath. Starting from the Wigner transform of the von Neumann equation for the quantum-mechanical density matrix of the entire system, the quantum-classical Wigner-Liouville equation is obtained in the limit where the masses M of the bath particles are large as compared with the masses m of the subsystem particles. The structure of this equation is discussed and it is shown how the abstract operator form of the quantum-classical Liouville equation is obtained by taking the inverse Wigner transform on the subsystem. Solutions in terms of classical trajectory segments and quantum transition or momentum jumps are described.