5 research outputs found
Quasiclassical Equations of Motion for Nonlinear Brownian Systems
Following the formalism of Gell-Mann and Hartle, phenomenological equations
of motion are derived from the decoherence functional formalism of quantum
mechanics, using a path-integral description. This is done explicitly for the
case of a system interacting with a ``bath'' of harmonic oscillators whose
individual motions are neglected. The results are compared to the equations
derived from the purely classical theory. The case of linear interactions is
treated exactly, and nonlinear interactions are compared using classical and
quantum perturbation theory.Comment: 24 pages, CALT-68-1848 (RevTeX 2.0 macros