The quantum Langevin equation is the Heisenberg equation of motion for the (operator) coordinate of a Brownian particle coupled to a heat bath. We give an elementary derivation of this equation for a simple coupled-oscillator model of the heat bath.
The Hu-Paz-Zhang equation is a master equation for an oscillator coupled to a
linear passive bath. It is exact within the assumption that the oscillator and
bath are initially uncoupled . Here an exact general solution is obtained in
the form of an expression for the Wigner function at time t in terms of the
initial Wigner function. The result is applied to the motion of a Gaussian wave
packet and to that of a pair of such wave packets. A serious divergence arising
from the assumption of an initially uncoupled state is found to be due to the
zero-point oscillations of the bath and not removed in a cutoff model. As a
consequence, worthwhile results for the equation can only be obtained in the
high temperature limit, where zero-point oscillations are neglected. In that
limit closed form expressions for wave packet spreading and attenuation of
coherence are obtained. These results agree within a numerical factor with
those appearing in the literature, which apply for the case of a particle at
zero temperature that is suddenly coupled to a bath at high temperature. On the
other hand very different results are obtained for the physically consistent
case in which the initial particle temperature is arranged to coincide with
that of the bath
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