Quantum position diffusion and its implications for the quantum linear Boltzmann equation

Abstract

We derive a quantum master equation from first principles to describe friction in one dimensional, collisional Brownian motion. We are the first to avoid an ill-defined square of the Dirac delta function by using localized wave packets rather than plane waves. Solving the Schr\"odinger equation for two colliding particles, we discover that the previously found position diffusion is not a physical process, but an artifact of the approximation of a coarse grained time scale, which in turn is needed to find Markkovian dynamics.