Convergence of macrostates under reproducible processes
Quantum Physics
2010-08-10 v2 Statistical Mechanics
Abstract
I show that whenever a system undergoes a reproducible macroscopic process the mutual distinguishability of macrostates, as measured by their relative entropy, diminishes. This extends the second law which regards only ordinary entropies, and hence only the distinguishability between macrostates and one specific reference state (equidistribution). The new result holds regardless of whether the process is linear or nonlinear. Its proof hinges on the monotonicity of quantum relative entropy under arbitrary coarse grainings, even those that cannot be represented by completely positive maps.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1004.4475,
title = {Convergence of macrostates under reproducible processes},
author = {Jochen Rau},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.4475},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
5 pages, no figures; v2: new title and abstract, expanded on motivation and physical meaning