THE STOCHASTIC QUANTIZATION METHOD FOR SYSTEMS WITH DISSIPATION

The stochastic quantization of dissipative systems is discussed. It is shown that in order to stochastically quantize a system with dissipation, one has to restrict the Fourier transform of the space-time variable to the positive half domain in the complex plane. This breaks the time-reversal invariance, which manifests in the formulation through the resulting non-invariant forms for the propagators. The relation of the stochastic approach with the Caldeira and Leggett path-integral method is also analyzed.