title: Markovian master equation for a classical particle coupled with arbitrary strength to a harmonic bath.
abstract: We consider a classical point particle bilinearly coupled to a harmonic bath. Assuming that the evolution of the particle is monitored on a timescale which is longer than the characteristic bath correlation time, we derive the Markovian master equation for the probability density of the particle. The relaxation operator of this master equation is evaluated analytically, without invoking the perturbation theory and the approximation of weak system-bath coupling. When the bath correlation time tends to zero, the Fokker-Planck equation is recovered. For a finite bath correlation time, the relaxation operator contains contributions of all orders in the system-bath coupling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Technische Universität München, D-85747 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Maxim F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Gelin