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Hu, Paz, and Zhang B. L. Hu, J. P. Paz, and Y. Zhang, Phys. Rev. D 45, 2843 (1992) have derived an exact master equation for quantum Brownian motion in a general environment via path integral techniques. Their master equation provides a very useful tool to study the decoherence of a quantum system due to the interaction with its environment. In this paper, we give an alternative and elementary derivation of the Hu-Paz-Zhang master equation, which involves tracing the evolution equation for the Wigner function. We also discuss the master equation in some special cases. 1996 The American Physical Society.
Halliwell et al. (1996) studied this question.