Thermoforesis from generalized Caldeira-Leggett models

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 27 Mar 2026] Thermoforesis from generalized Caldeira-Leggett models Daniel Valente, Maurício Matos, Thiago Werlang The standard Caldeira-Leggett model addresses the problem of Brownian motion in a thermal equilibrium environment. Here, we look for generalizations of the Caldeira-Leggett model to account for thermal gradients in the environment. We devise two types of models, and discuss the advantages and limitations of each one. From both models, we find signatures of thermophoresis, i.e., particle transport due to a thermal gradient. In principle, our models can be employed to describe thermophoresis in quantum Brownian particles, an open problem so far. Comments: 10 pages, no figures, submitted to Special Issue "Frontiers in Quantum Mechanics and the 45 Years of the Caldeira-Leggett Model", Braz. J. Phys Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) Cite as: arXiv:2603.26980 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2603.26980v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.26980 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Daniel Valente [view email] [v1] Fri, 27 Mar 2026 20:45:57 UTC (12 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-03 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.stat-mech References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)