Feynman-Vernon model of a moving thermal environment

Abstract

This paper reviews the formulation of the Feynman-Vernon model of linear dissipative systems for a standard Brownian particle moving in an external potential $V(x,t)$ and introduces the formulation of a generalized oscillator model of a Brownian particle coupled to a thermal environment moving with a given velocity $v_{env}$. Diffusion processes in a moving environment are of interest e.g. in the study of the motion of vortices in superfluids. The starting point of the paper is the formulation of the oscillator model that takes into account space and time invariance of a thermal environment [M. Patriarca, Statistical correlations in the oscillator model of quantum Brownian motion, Il Nuovo Cimento B, 111(1), 61-72 (1996), doi: 10.1007/BF02726201, arXiv:1801.02429], which has the property of being finite and consistent with the classical limit. The Langevin equation and the influence functional for a Brownian particle in a moving environment are derived.