Effect of transport coefficients on the time-dependence of density matrix

TL;DR

This paper analytically derives the time evolution of the density matrix in open quantum systems and explores how transport coefficients influence quantum decoherence and nuclear barrier penetration.

Contribution

It provides an analytical solution for the density matrix propagator in quadratic Hamiltonian systems and examines the impact of transport coefficients on decoherence in nuclear processes.

Findings

Decoherence depends critically on transport coefficients.

Analytical propagator derived for quadratic Hamiltonian systems.

Application to nuclear barrier penetration in heavy ion collisions.

Abstract

For Lindblad's master equation of open quantum systems with a general quadratic form of the Hamiltonian, the propagator of the density matrix is analytically calculated by using path integral techniques. The time-dependent density matrix is applied to nuclear barrier penetration in heavy ion collisions with inverted oscillator and double-well potentials. The quantum mechanical decoherence of pairs of phase space histories in the propagator is studied and shown that the decoherence depends crucially on the transport coefficients.