Dissipation and decoherence by ideal quantum gas

Abstract

The effective Lagrangian of a test particle, interacting with an ideal gas, is calculated with in the closed time path formalism in the one-loop and the leading order of the particle trajectory. The expansion in the time derivative is available for slow enough motion and it uncovers diffusive effective forces and decoherence for the coordinate and the momentum. A pure Newtonian friction force and an anisotrop coordinate decoherence are found for zero temperature ideal gas of fermions.