Alternative Derivation of the Hu-Paz-Zhang Master Equation for Quantum Brownian Motion
Abstract
Hu, Paz and Zhang [ B.L. Hu, J.P. Paz and Y. Zhang, Phys. Rev. D 45 (1992) 2843] have derived an exact master equation for quantum Brownian motion in a general environment via path integral techniques. Their master equation provides a very useful tool to study the decoherence of a quantum system due to the interaction with its environment. In this paper, we give an alternative and elementary derivation of the Hu-Paz-Zhang master equation, which involves tracing the evolution equation for the Wigner function. We also discuss the master equation in some special cases.
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