Solving quantum master equations in phase space by continued-fraction methods

Abstract

Inspired on the continued-fraction technique to solve the classical Fokker--Planck equation, we develop continued-fraction methods to solve quantum master equations in phase space (Wigner representation of the density matrix). The approach allows to study several classes of nonlinear quantum systems subjected to environmental effects (fluctuations and dissipation), with the only limitations that the starting master equations may have. We illustrate the method with the canonical problem of quantum Brownian motion in periodic potentials.