Dynamics of complex systems is often hierarchically organized on different time scales. To understand the physics of such hierarchy, here Brownian motion of a particle moving through a fluctuating medium with slowly varying temperature is studied as an analytically tractable example, and a kinetic theory is formulated for describing the states of the particle. What is peculiar here is that the (inverse) temperature is treated as a dynamical variable. Dynamical hierarchy is introduced in conformity with the adiabatic scheme. Then, a (...) new analytical method is developed to show how the Fokker–Planck equation admits as a stationary solution the Maxwellian distribution modulated by the temperature fluctuations, the distribution of which turns out to be determined by the drift term. A careful comment is also made on so-called superstatistics. (shrink)

Wegner’s method of flow equations offers a useful tool for diagonalizing a given Hamiltonian and is widely used in various branches of quantum physics. Here, generalizing this method, a condition is derived, under which the corresponding flow of a quantum state becomes geodesic in a submanifold of the projective Hilbert space, independently of specific initial conditions. This implies the geometric optimality of the present method as an algorithm of generating stationary states. The result is illustrated by analyzing some physical examples.