Dissipation by identical oscillators

This paper considers a microscopic model for dissipation, in which a degree of freedom X is coupled to a large number of identical microscopic oscillators (typically non-interacting fermions in a potential well). The motion of the coordinate X causes irreversible excitation of the gas of oscillators, which can be observed as a dissipation of the motion of this coordinate. The rate of dissipation depends drastically on whether the classical motion of the oscillators is regular or ergodic. A possible experimental demonstration of this effect is discussed.