| While the exact quantization of a dissipative system in terms of influence functionals has been well-understood for some decades, the construction of a consistent semiclassical approach to open-system dynamics seemed somewhat elusive. Starting from the postulate that the classical limit of open-system dynamics must conform to a generalized Langevin equation, we use a stochastic approach which provides an exact mapping of a Gaussian environment to noise forces obeying the quantum mechanical version of Kubo's fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The open quantum system is propagated using a noisy semiclassical propagator of the Herman-Kluk type, which involves an average over an initial phase-space distribution. Treating the sample space of initial phase-space points and noise samples as a single entity leads to an efficient and accurate simulation method. Initial calculations confirm the accuracy and computational feasibility of the approach. |
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