Classical-quantum oscillators as diffusive processes in phase space

Abstract

The dynamics of hybrid systems -- i.e. ones in which classical and quantum degrees of freedom co-exist and interact -- feature both diffusion in the classical sector and decoherence in the quantum state. In this article, we will consider the simple setup of a classical damped oscillator interacting with its quantum counterpart and show that, for any initial state, the dynamics flows to a unique (non-equilibrium) steady state, which we compute explicitly. To do so, we make use of a useful mapping between hybrid and classical diffusive dynamics, which we characterise in detail in the master equation formalism.