Energetics of the dissipative quantum oscillator

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energetics of a dissipative quantum oscillator, revealing differences in energy definitions under various conditions and extending the analysis to magneto-oscillators in magnetic fields.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed comparison of multiple thermally-averaged energy functions for dissipative quantum oscillators and extends the analysis to magneto-oscillators in magnetic fields.

Findings

Energy functions differ for arbitrary coupling strength.

Both energy functions satisfy quantum energy equipartition theorem.

Weak-coupling limit recovers the standard quantum harmonic oscillator energy.

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss some aspects of the energetics of a quantum Brownian particle placed in a harmonic trap, also known as the dissipative quantum oscillator. Based on the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, we analyze two distinct notions of thermally-averaged energy that can be ascribed to the oscillator. These energy functions, respectively dubbed hereafter as the mean energy and the internal energy, are found to be unequal for arbitrary system-bath coupling strength, when the bath spectral function has a finite cutoff frequency, as in the case of a Drude bath. Remarkably, both the energy functions satisfy the quantum counterpart of the energy equipartition theorem, but with different probability distribution functions on the frequency domain of the heat bath. Moreover, the Gibbs approach to thermodynamics provides us with yet another thermally-averaged energy function. In the weak-coupling limit, all the above-mentioned energy expressions reduce to $\epsilon = \frac{\hbar \omega_0}{2} \coth \big(\frac{ \hbar \omega_0}{2 k_B T}\big)$, which is the familiar result. We generalize our analysis to the case of the three-dimensional dissipative magneto-oscillator, i.e., when a charged dissipative oscillator is placed in a spatially-uniform magnetic field.