Theory of the strongly-damped quantum harmonic oscillator

Abstract

We analyse the properties of a strongly-damped quantum harmonic oscillator by means of an exact diagonalisation of the full Hamiltonian, including both the oscillator and the reservoir degrees of freedom to which it is coupled. Many of the properties of the oscillator, including its steady-state properties and entanglement with the reservoir can be understood and quantified in terms of a simple probability density, which we may associate with the ground-state frequency spectrum of the oscillator.