Abstract

Because no laboratory system is isolated, the formulation of a theory that includes the effects of the environment is well motivated. We present such a theory that furnishes the temporal evolution of the density operator of a system of interest when it is in contact with a thermal reservoir. One of the advantages of our approach is that it permits quite general coupling between system and environment. Another advantage is that our method readily admits a semiclassical version if full quantum results are too unwieldy or are unnecessary.

© 1993 Optical Society of America