@article{b1e0f2a16850478fb0fc43751b24e0f6,
title = "Dissipative transport across a parabolic barrier",
abstract = "We suggest quantal diffusion coefficients for Kramers' transport equation and discuss the dynamics of fluctuations in the neighborhood of a barrier, considered generic for an instability of a system's response to an external perturbation.",
author = "Helmut Hofmann and Ingold, {Gert Ludwig}",
note = "Funding Information: Instabilities play an important role in many parts of physics. Often they are treated within a mean field approach, sometimes from static considerations. For the classical case, Kramers has shown \[1 \] how a dynamical treatment of statistical fluctuations may modify the results. It was only in the 80's that one has begun to understand how to incorporate quantum effects (for a review see e.g. refs. \[2,3\]). As the common technique one uses the method of path integrals, usually adapted to propagation in imaginary time. The latter feature is a mathematical artifact. Indeed, there exist many physical problems for which a description with real time propagation is highly desirable. For instance, this will be the case whenever the unstable mode is accompanied by additional observable processes. A prime example is nuclear fission at finite excitation which allows the evaporation of light particles. As another example we may mention nuclear multifragmentation. Here, it is already the complexity of the underlying equation of motion - which is of Boltzmann-Landau type including a collision ~r This work has been funded in part by the German Federal Minister for Research and Technology (BMFT) under the contract number 06-TM-711.",
year = "1991",
month = aug,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/0370-2693(91)90344-P",
language = "English",
volume = "264",
pages = "253--258",
journal = "Physics Letters B",
issn = "0370-2693",
publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",
number = "3-4",
}