Quantum Dissipation due to the Interaction with Chaos

Doron Cohen, Tsampikos Kottos

Published 2003-02-16, updated 2004-03-18Version 3

We discuss the possibility of having "quantum dissipation" due to the interaction with chaotic degrees of freedom. We define the conditions that should be satisfied in order to have a dissipative effect similar to the one due to an interaction with a (many body) bath. We also compare with the case where the environment is modeled by a random matrix model. In case of interaction with "chaos" we observe a regime where the relaxation process is non-universal, and reflects the underlaying semiclassical dynamics. As an example we consider a two level system (spin) that interacts with a two dimensional anharmonic oscillator.