Dissipation in a decaying basis
(by Klaus Hornberger)
It is shown how the coherent decay of an open quantum system is affected
by the incoherent (dissipative) processes introduced by the coupling to a
Markovian environment. Using the complex dilation method the time evolution
of the reduced density operator can be formulated in a discrete set of basis
functions (Gamov states). The corresponding master equation provides a
precise and transparent description of the interplay between the coherent
and the dissipative decay processes.