Description
Book SynopsisThis book treats the central physical concepts and mathematical techniques used to investigate the dynamics of open quantum systems. To provide a self-contained presentation the text begins with a survey of classical probability theory and with an introduction into the foundations of quantum mechanics with particular emphasis on its statistical interpretation. The fundamentals of density matrix theory, quantum Markov processes and dynamical semigroups are developed. The most important master equations used in quantum optics and in the theory of quantum Brownian motion are applied to the study of many examples. Special attention is paid to the theory of environment induced decoherence, its role in the dynamical description of the measurement process and to the experimental observation of decohering Schrodinger cat states.The book includes the modern formulation of open quantum systems in terms of stochastic processes in Hilbert space. Stochastic wave function methods and Monte Carlo alg
Trade ReviewThis book covers a large set of topics, normally not covered in standard physics curricula ... I recommend this book to physicists interested in widening their horizons in the directions covered by the book ... I do not know of any other source providing such a systematic and well written introduction into this area of research. * Mathematical Reviews *
Table of ContentsPREFACE ; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ; PART 1: PROBABILITY IN CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS ; 1. Classical probability theory and stochastic processes ; 2. Quantum Probability ; PART 2: DENSITY MATRIX THEORY ; 3. Quantum Master Equations ; 4. Decoherence ; PART 3: STOCHASTIC PROCESSES IN HILBERT SPACE ; 5. Probability distributions on Hilbert space ; 6. Stochastic dynamics in Hilbert space ; 7. The stochastic simulation method ; 8. Applications to quantum optical systems ; PART 4: NON-MARKOVIAN QUANTUM PROCESSES ; 9. Projection operator techniques ; 10. Non-Markovian dynamics in physical systems ; PART 5: RELATIVISTIC QUANTUM PROCESSES ; 11. Measurements in relativistic quantum mechanics ; 12. Open quantum electrodynamics
