pith. sign in

arxiv: cond-mat/0011486 · v1 · submitted 2000-11-29 · ❄️ cond-mat

Master Equation for Electromagnetic Dissipation and Decoherence of Density Matrix

classification ❄️ cond-mat
keywords decoherencedensitydissipationelectromagneticequationmastermatrixtemperature
0
0 comments X
read the original abstract

We set up a forward--backward path integral for a point particle in a bath of photons to derive a master equation for the density matrix which describes electromagnetic dissipation and decoherence. As an application, we recalculate the Weisskopf-Wigner formula for the natural line width of an atomic state at zero temperature and find, in addition, the temperature broadening caused by the decoherence term.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.