On the Markovian limit in a kinetic theory for dissipative systems

We reconsider a nonlinear quantum kinetic theory which is built within the contest of a nonequilibrium statistical ensemble formalism. This is the Non equilibrium Statistical Operator Method based on a variational principle, n amely, the Maximization of the Informational-Statistical Entropy, and refer red to as MaxEnt-NESOM. It may be considered as encompassed within the fram ework of E.T. Jaynes Predictive Statistical Mechanics. These theory has an ample domain of application covering a large class of experimental conditio ns, We consider a particular - and quite important - limiting case, consist ing in the Markovian approximation. For illustration we applied it to the s tudy of a spill system in interaction with the lattice. The presentation is an extended and detailed version of a; Brief Report. published in Phys. Re v. E 57, 3637-3640 (1998).