Energetics of the dissipative quantum oscillator

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss some aspects of the energetics of a quantum Brownian particle placed in a harmonic trap, also known as the dissipative quantum oscillator. Based on the fluctuation–dissipation theorem, we analyze two distinct notions of thermally-averaged energy that can be ascribed to the oscillator. These energy functions, respectively dubbed hereafter as the mean energy and the internal energy, are found to be inequivalent for arbitrary system–bath coupling strength when the dissipation kernel has a non-zero memory timescale, as in the case of a Drude bath. Remarkably, both the energy functions satisfy the quantum counterpart of energy equipartition theorem, but with different probability distributions on the frequency domain of the heat bath. Moreover, the Gibbs approach to thermodynamics provides us with yet another thermally-averaged energy function. In the weak-coupling limit, all the above-mentioned energy expressions reduce to ϵ=ħω02coth(ħω02kBT), which is the familiar result. We generalize our analysis to the case of the three-dimensional dissipative charged oscillator placed in a spatially-uniform magnetic field.