arXiv subjects

A. P. Grecos

Publications and source records attributed to A. P. Grecos.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2005

Statistical-mechanical description of classical test-particle dynamics in the presence of an external force field: modelling noise and damping from first principles

Aiming to establish a rigorous link between macroscopic random motion (described e.g. by Langevin-type theories) and microscopic dynamics, we have undertaken a kinetic-theoretical study of the dynamics of a classical test-particle weakly coupled to a large heat-bath in thermal equilibrium. Both subsystems are subject to an external force field. From the (time-non-local) generalized master equation a Fokker-Planck-type equation follows as a "quasi-Markovian" approximation. The kinetic operator thus defined is shown to be ill-defined; in specific, it does not preserve the positivity of the test-particle distribution function $f(\mathbf{x}, \mathbf{v}; t)$. Adopting an alternative approach, previously proposed for quantum open systems, is proposed to lead to a correct kinetic operator, which yields all the expected properties. A set of explicit expressions for the diffusion and drift coefficients are obtained, allowing for modelling macroscopic diffusion and dynamical friction phenomena, in terms of an external field and intrinsic physical parameters.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1996

Generalized Moyal structures in phase space, kinetic equations and their classical limit: II. Applications to harmonic oscillator models

The formalism of generalized Wigner transformations developped in a previous paper, is applied to kinetic equations of the Lindblad type for quantum harmonic oscillator models. It is first applied to an oscillator coupled to an equilibrium chain of other oscillators having nearest-neighbour interactions. The kinetic equation is derived without using the so called rotating-wave approximation. Then it is shown that the classical limit of the corresponding phase-space equation is independent of the ordering of operators corresponding to the inverse of the generalized Wigner transformation, provided the latter is involutive. Moreover, this limit equation, which conserves the probabilistic nature of the distribution function and obeys an H-theorem, coincides with the kinetic equation for the corresponding classical system, which is derived independently and is distinct from that usually obtained in the litterature and not sharing the above properties. Finally the same formalism is applied to more general model equations used in quantum optics and it is shown that the above results remain unaltered.

quant-ph↗