Dynamics of Open Quantum Systems

Guest Editors Timothy Berkelbach and Michael Thoss worked in collaboration with the JCP Editors on this Special Topic. Open quantum systems, i.e. quantum systems that exchange energy or particles with their environment, are ubiquitous in chemical physics and related fields. Examples range from molecules in solution and at surfaces to molecular junctions, where single molecules are coupled to electrodes at different chemical potential or temperature. The coupling to the environment gives rise to dynamical processes such as dephasing and relaxation as well as thermalization, nonequilibrium excitation, and transport, the understanding of which is crucial in the field of condensed-phase chemical dynamics. Recent years have seen a wealth of activities in the field, both in the development of advanced theoretical methods (including those based on perturbation theory, path integrals, high-dimensional wavefunctions, hierarchical equations of motion, stochastic methods, and embedding frameworks) and in their application to a variety of challenging and interesting systems.

Guest Editors: Timothy Berkelbach and Michael Thoss