A Quantum Theory of Thermodynamic Relaxation

Abstract

Abstract: A new approach to quantum Markov processes is developed and the corresponding Fokker-Planck-like equation is derived. The latter was examined to reproduce known results from classical and quantum physics. It was also applied to the phase-space description of a mechanical system thus leading to a new treatment of this problem different from the Wigner presentation. The equilibrium probability density obtained in the mixed coordinate-momentum space is a reasonable extension of the Gibbs canonical distribution.

Keywords

• quantum relaxation
• Markov processes
• non-equilibrium thermodynamics