Stochastic symmetry breaking of time reversal invariance

Abstract

An equation for the time evolution of the density matrix for a nonrelativistic quantum mechanical system is presented. It involves a Hamiltonian which contains a stochastic contribution. Before stochastic averaging is performed, it is shown that the density matrix equation is time reversal invariant, whereas after stochastic averaging is performed, it is shown that the averaged density matrix equation is not time reversal invariant.