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High-Temperature Limit Penalizing High-Frequency Quantum Fluctuations

Graeme Pleasance1,2,*, Erik Aurell3,†, and Francesco Petruccione1,2,4,‡

  • *Contact author: gpleasance1@gmail.com
  • †Contact author: eaurell@kth.se
  • ‡Contact author: petruccione@sun.ac.za
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 050405 – Published 29 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kp9j-v4ss

Abstract

We revisit the Caldeira-Leggett model of quantum Brownian motion with Ohmic spectral density, and derive an additional contribution to the decoherence kernel in a new high-temperature limit at arbitrarily large cutoff frequency. This contribution reveals a novel mechanism for the classicalization of high-frequency quantum fluctuations. We further demonstrate that it leads to a Markovian master equation that is in guaranteed Lindblad form, and argue that this master equation describes the correct Markovian limit of quantum Brownian motion. Our approach considers in detail the behavior of the decoherence kernel at both the initial and final times of the process on the timescale of the bath memory.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 050405– Published 29 July, 2026
  • Received 19 August 2025
  • Revised 4 December 2025
  • Accepted 26 May 2026
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