Classic & Quant Dissip

Dissipative forces play an important role in problems of classical as well as quantum mechanics. Since these forces are not among the basic forces of nature, it is essential to consider whether they should be treated as phenomenological interactions used in the equations of motion, or they should be derived from other conservative forces. In this book we discuss both approaches in detail starting with the Stoke's law of motion in a viscous fluid and ending with a detailed review of recent attempts to understand the nature of drag forces originating from the motion of a plane or a sphere in vacuum caused by variations in zero-point energy. In the classical formulation, mathematical techniques for constructing Lagrangian and Hamiltonian for the variational formulation of non-conservative systems are discussed at length. Various physical systems of interest including the problem of radiating electron, theory of natural line width, spin-boson problem, scattering and trapping of heavy ions, and optical potential models of nuclear reactions are considered and solved.