Adding decoherence to the Wigner equation

Abstract: Starting from the detailed description of the single-collision decoherence mechanism proposed by Adami, Hauray and Negulescu, we derive a Wigner equation endowed with a decoherence term of a fairly general form. This equation is shown to contain well known decoherence models, such as the Wigner-Fokker-Planck equation, as particular cases. The effect of the decoherence mechanism on the dynamics of the macroscopic moments (density, current, energy) is illustrated by deriving the corresponding set of balance laws. The issue of large-time asymptotics of our model is addressed in the particular, although physically relevant, case of gaussian solutions. It is shown that the addition of a Caldeira-Legget friction term provides the asymptotic behaviour that one expects on the basis of physical considerations.