Quantizing Lévy flights

Abstract: The Caldeira-Leggett model of quantum Brownian motion is generalized using a generic velocity-dependent coupling. That leads to the description of a set of models able to capture Markovian and non-Markovian versions of Brownian and L\'evy statistics, depending on the functional form of the coupling and on the spectral function of the reservoir. One specific coupling force is found that establishes a connection with L\'evy statistics of cold atoms in \textit{Sisyphus} laser cooling. In the low-velocity limit, this also gives rise to additional inertia of the Brownian particle, reproducing the Abraham-Lorentz equation from first principles for a superohmic bath. Through path-integral quantization in Euclidean time, the environment is integrated out, leaving a set of non-local effective actions. These results further serve as starting points for several numerical calculations, particularly decoherence properties of non-ohmic baths.