Fluctuation dissipation theorem and electrical noise revisited

TL;DR

This paper revisits the fluctuation dissipation theorem (FDT) in the context of electrical noise, addressing its limitations and exploring its properties and applications in various physical regimes, including quantum and ballistic transport.

Contribution

It provides a critical analysis of the FDT's drawbacks and extends its understanding to new regimes like vacuum and photon gases, with insights into its duality and reciprocity.

Findings

Identifies limitations of the classical FDT in quantum regimes.

Extends FDT analysis to vacuum and photon gases.

Clarifies the duality and reciprocity properties of FDT.

Abstract

The fluctuation dissipation theorem (FDT) is the basis for a microscopic description of the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter.By assuming the electromagnetic radiation in thermal equilibrium and the interaction in the linear response regime, the theorem interrelates the spontaneous fluctuations of microscopic variables with the kinetic coefficients that are responsible for energy dissipation.In the quantum form provided by Callen and Welton in their pioneer paper of 1951 for the case of conductors, electrical noise detected at the terminals of a conductor was given in terms of the spectral density of voltage fluctuations, $S_V({\omega})$, and was related to the real part of its impedance, $Re[Z({\omega})]$, by a simple relation.The drawbacks of this relation concern with: (I) the appearance of a zero point contribution which implies a divergence of the spectrum at increasing frequencies; (ii) the lack of detailing the appropriate equivalent-circuit of the impedance, (iii) the neglect of the Casimir effect associated with the quantum interaction between zero-point energy and boundaries of the considered physical system; (iv) the lack of identification of the microscopic noise sources beyond the temperature model. These drawbacks do not allow to validate the relation with experiments. By revisiting the FDT within a brief historical survey, we shed new light on the existing drawbacks by providing further properties of the theorem, focusing on the electrical noise of a two-terminal sample under equilibrium conditions. Accordingly, we will discuss the duality and reciprocity properties of the theorem, its applications to the ballistic transport regime, to the case of vacuum and to the case of a photon gas.