Abstract
Brownian motion, that is the fate of a heavy particle immersed in a fluid of lighter particles, is the prototype of a dissipative system coupled to a thermal bath with infinitely many degrees of freedom. The works by Einstein and others have uncovered the fundamental relation between friction, diffusion and temperature of the bath. While the classical treatment relies on the separability of particle and its surrounding, this is no longer true for open quantum systems. In fact, for stronger interaction between system and environment, collective effects may appear such that it is by no means obvious to identify where is the system and where is the bath. In this article, we discuss foundations and specific examples of these cooperative phenomena.
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Ankerhold, J. (2015). Dissipation in Quantum Mechanical Systems: Where Is the System and Where Is the Reservoir?. In: Falkenburg, B., Morrison, M. (eds) Why More Is Different. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43911-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43911-1_4
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