Abstract
Agarwal's definition of detailed balance for open quantum Markoffian systems is shown to arise from microreversibility in an analogous fashion to the familiar classical concept. It is therefore presented as the appropriate formal generalisation of the classical result to the quantum-mechanical regime. This fully quantum-mechanical approach is discussed in relation to the Fokker-Planck equations of the phase-space calculus and the Pauli master equation; two contexts in which a pseudo-classical form of detailed balance is well known. Our discussion is illustrated through the examples of the damped harmonic oscillator and the single mode laser.
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Supported by a New Zealand U.G.C. Post Graduate Scholarship.
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Carmichael, H.J., Walls, D.F. Detailed balance in open quantum Markoffian systems. Z Physik B 23, 299–306 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01318974
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01318974