Quantum diffusion with drift and the Einstein relation. I

Abstract

We study the dynamics of a quantum particle hopping on a simple cubic lattice and driven by a constant external force. It is coupled to an array of identical, independent thermal reservoirs consisting of free, massless Bose fields, one at each site of the lattice. When the particle visits a site x of the lattice it can emit or absorb field quanta of the reservoir at x. Under the assumption that the coupling between the particle and the reservoirs and the driving force are sufficiently small, we establish the following results: The ergodic average over time of the state of the particle approaches a non-equilibrium steady state (NESS) describing a non-zero mean drift of the particle. Its motion around the mean drift is diffusive, and the diffusion constant and the drift velocity are related to one another by the Einstein relation.