Oscillation function thermal bath

One considers a particle interacting linearly with an environment constituted by an infinite number of independent harmonic oscillators in thermal equilibrium. The particle equation of motion, which can be derived exactly, takes the form of a generalized Langevin equation, in which the memory kernel and the correlation function of the random force are assigned well-defined microscopic expressions in terms of the bath operators. 

This observation has importance when we take into account the irreversibility. Due to irreversibility, the damped oscillator proceeds to thermal equilibrium with the thermal bath. This thermal equilibrium can be characterized in terms of classical statistic theory. However, in classical statistics, random variables have a joint distribution function, which could exist in the case of quantum theory if the operators are compatible. The commutator relation (Equation (100)) is compatible this physical picture, but from Equations (100) and (101), we obtain... 

The Golden Rule formula (9.5) for the mean rate constant assumes the Unear response regime of solvent polarization and is completely equivalent in this sense to the result predicted by the spin-boson model, where a two-state electronic system is coupled to a thermal bath of harmonic oscillators with the spectral density of relaxation J(o)) [38,71]. One should keep in mind that the actual coordinates of the solvent are not necessarily harmonic, but if the collective solvent polarization foUows the Unear response, the system can be effectively represented by a set of harmonic oscillators with the spectral density derived from the linear response function [39,182]. Another important point we would like to mention is that the Golden Rule expression is in fact equivalent [183] to the so-called noninteracting blip approximation [71] often used in the context of the spin-boson model. The perturbation theory can be readily applied to... 

If the oscillator is weakly coupled to the bath, in canonical thermal equilibrium the probability of finding the oscillator in the nth state is of course P q = e / En/Zq, where ft = I/kT and the oscillator s canonical partition function is Zq = e In addition, the oscillator s off-diagonal (in this energy representation) density matrix elements are zero. The average oscillator energy (in thermal equilibrium) is Eeq = n13nPnq-... 

The spectral density (see also Sections (7-5.2) and (8-2.5)) plays a prominent role in models of thermal relaxation that use harmonic oscillators description of the thermal environment and where the system-bath coupling is taken linear in the bath coordinates and/or momenta. We will see (an explicit example is given in Section 8.2.5) that /(co) characterizes the dynamics of the thermal environment as seen by the relaxing system, and consequently determines the relaxation behavior of the system itself. Two simple models for this function are often used ... 

In the principal ac mode of operation, an oscillating power is applied to the investigated sample. The frequency is appropriately chosen to eliminate any temperature gradients within the sample as well as to achieve good thermal equilibrium between the sample and the bath. The heat capacity Cp is derived as a function of the applied power, the oscillating frequency and the temperature oscillations around its mean value. The ac mode of operation is in fact sensitive only to the continuous... 

Such correlation functions are often encountered in treatments of systems coupled to their thermal environment, where the model for the system-bath interaction is taken as a product of or S with a system variable. In such treatments the coefficients Cj reflect the distribution of the system-bath coupling among the different modes. In classical mechanics these functions can be easily evaluated explicitly from the definition (6.6) by using the general solution of the harmonic oscillator equations of motion... 

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