Abstract

There are numerous examples in physics that can be modeled by the interaction between a small system of interest and a reservoir. The interaction typically leads to the irreversible decay of the system variables. As the system evolves into an equilibrium state, various parameters such as mean values, probabilities, and variances change until the final steady state is reached. The evolution of a system coupled to a reservoir with a short memory is often described by a master equation for the reduced density operator of the system. Master equations are important in physics because of their generality and hence wide range of applicability [1].

© 1992 Optical Society of America