Influence of coloured noise on the diffusion of a quantum particle. Part I: General results

A general stochastic model for the diffusion of a quantum particle on a fluctuating lattice is considered and several exact results useful in the calculation of transport properties are given. First, we derive a new type of integral equation for the density operator using a time-dependent projection operator and disentangling the stochastic, not the deterministic part of the motion in contrast to previous treatments. The mean square displacement is then expressed by the kernel of this equation in the case of diagonal fluctuations. We obtain an equation of motion for this kernel similar in structure to equations known from Green's function theory and containing a self-energy like quantity. Finally, two general statements concerning the exact solution of correlated models are given.