QUANTUM THEORY OF A RANDOMLY MODULATED HARMONIC OSCILLATOR

The time evolution of a randomly modulated quantum harmonic oscillator is studied by introducing the master equation for the reduced density operator s(t). The antinormally ordered representation is adopted for s(t), and one is thus confronted with the problem of solving the partial differential equation obeyed by the reduced matrix element s̄ of s(t). The two limiting cases of short- and long-range correlations of the frequency fluctuations are treated in detail. © 1969 The American Physical Society.