On the quantum-mechanical Fokker-Planck and Kramers-Chandrasekhar equation

N.L. Balazs

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 1978, vol. 94, issue 2, 181-191

Abstract: In the classical theory of Brownian motion we can consider the Langevin equation as an infinitesimal transformation between the coordinates and momenta of a Brownian particle, given probabilistically, since the impulse appearing is characterized by a Gaussian random process. This probabilistic infinitesimal transformation generates a streaming on the distribution function, expressed by the classical Fokker-Planck and Kramers-Chandrasekhar equations. If the laws obeyed by the Brownian particle are quantum mechanical, we can reinterpret the Langevin equation as an operator relation expressing an infinitesimal transformation of these operators. Since the impulses are independent of the coordinates and momenta we can think of them as c numbers described by a Gaussian random process. The so resulting infinitesimal operator transformation induces a streaming on the density matrix. We may associate, according to Weyl functions with operators. The function associated with the density matrix is the Wigner function. Expressing, then, these operator relations in terms of these functions we can express the streaming as a continuity equation of the Wigner function. We find that in this parametrization the extra terms which appear are the same as in the classical theory, augmenting the usual Wigner equation.

Date: 1978
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:94:y:1978:i:2:p:181-191

DOI: 10.1016/0378-4371(78)90095-X

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