Abstract
We model a quantum system coupled to an environment of damped harmonic
oscillators by following the approach of Caldeira-Leggett and adopting the
Caldirola-Kanai Lagrangian for the bath oscillators. In deriving the master
equation of the quantum system of interest (a particle in a general potential),
we show that the potential is modified non-trivially by a new inverted harmonic
oscillator term, induced by the damping of the bath oscillators. We analyze
numerically the case of a particle in a double-well potential, and find that
this modification changes both the rate of decoherence at short times and the
well-transfer probability at longer times. We also identify a simple rescaling
condition that keeps the potential fixed despite changes in the environmental
damping. Here, the increase of environmental damping leads to a slowing of
decoherence.