The dissipative dynamics of a quantum bistable system coupled to a Ohmic heatbath is investigated beyond the spin-boson approximation. Within thepath-integral approach to quantum dissipation, we propose an approximationscheme which exploits the separation of time scales between intra- andinterwell (tunneling) dynamics. The resulting generalized master equation forthe populations in a space localized basis enables us to investigate a widerange of temperatures and system-environment coupling strengths. A phasediagram in the coupling-temperature space is provided to give a comprehensiveaccount of the different dynamical regimes.
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