This is the ?rst in a series of three volumes dedicated to the lecture notes of the Summer School ”Open Quantum Systems” which took place at the Institut Fourier in Grenoble from June 16th to July 4th 2003. The contributions presented in these volumes are revised and expanded versions of the notes provided to the students during the School. Closed vs. Open Systems By de?nition, the time evolution of a closed physical systemS is deterministic. It is usually described by a differential equation x ? = X(x ) on the manifold M of t t possible con?gurations of the system. If the initial con?guration x ? M is known 0 then the solution of the corresponding initial value problem yields the con?guration x at any future time t. This applies to classical as well as to quantum systems. In the t classical case M is the phase space of the system and x describes the positions and t velocities of the various components (or degrees of freedom) ofS at time t. Inthe quantum case, according to the orthodoxinterpretation of quantum mechanics, M is a Hilbert space and x a unit vector – the wave function – describing the quantum t state of the system at time t. In both cases the knowledge of the state x allows t to predict the result of any measurement made onS at time t.
Understanding dissipative dynamics of open quantum systems remains a challenge in mathematical physics. This problem is relevant in various areas of fundamental and applied physics. From a mathematical point of view, it involves a large body of knowledge. Significant progress in the understanding of such systems has been made during the last decade. These books present in a self-contained way the mathematical theories involved in the modeling of such phenomena. They describe physically relevant models, develop their mathematical analysis and derive their physical implications.
In Volume I the Hamiltonian description of quantum open systems is discussed. This includes an introduction to quantum statistical mechanics and its operator algebraic formulation, modular theory, spectral analysis and their applications to quantum dynamical systems.
Volume II is dedicated to the Markovian formalism of classical and quantum open systems. A complete exposition of noise theory,Markov processes and stochastic differential equations, both in the classical and the quantum context, is provided. These mathematical tools are put into perspective with physical motivations and applications.
Volume III is devoted to recent developments and applications. The topics discussed include the non-equilibrium properties of open quantum systems, the Fermi Golden Rule and weak coupling limit, quantum irreversibility and decoherence, qualitative behaviour of quantum Markov semigroups and continual quantum measurements.
