Wave packet landscape in open quantum systems

Abstract

We formulate a landscape theory for the long-time wave packet spreading of free and harmonically trapped particles with quantum fluctuations and its related dissipation. We show that the diffusion, localization, and collapse of wave packets arise from symmetry structures of an underlying landscape in covariance space. The geometry of this landscape determines the asymptotic fate of the wave packet. In the quantum landscape description, the trapping potential and bath fluctuation break the landscape symmetry in distinct ways: the former lifts the valley-like landscape of a fluctuation-free free particle into a bowl-like landscape, leading to collapse, whereas the latter tilts the valley and turns localization into diffusion. The resulting landscape symmetry breaking accounts for the noncommuting long-time limits and abrupt changes in the asymptotic wave-packet width. This establishes landscape symmetry breaking as a unified geometric origin of wave-packet diffusion, localization, and collapse in quantum Brownian motion.