Derivation of a generalized Langevin equation from a generic time-dependent Hamiltonian

Abstract The traditional Mori–Zwanzig formalism yields equations of motion, so-called generalized Langevin equations (GLEs), for phase-space observables of interest from the microscopic dynamics of a many-body system governed by a time-independent Hamiltonian using projection techniques. By using time-ordered propagators and time-independent projection operators, we derive the GLE for a scalar observable from a generic time-dependent Hamiltonian. The only restriction in our derivation is that the time-dependent part of the Hamiltonian and the observable of interest depend on spatial phase-space variables only. If the observable obeys Gaussian statistics and the time-dependent part of the Hamiltonian can be expressed as an odd power of the observable, the friction memory kernel in the GLE becomes proportional to the second moment of the complementary force, as is the case for a time-independent Hamiltonian in the Mori–Zwanzig formalism.