English

Geometric effect and gauge field in nonequilibrium quantum thermostatistics

Statistical Mechanics 2009-11-11 v1

Abstract

The concept of work is studied in quantum thermostatistics of a system surrounded by an environment and driven by an external force. It is found that there emerges the gauge theoretical structure in a nonequilibrium process, the field of which is referred to as the work gauge field. The thermodynamic work as the flux of the work gauge field is considered for a cyclic process in the space of the external-force parameters. As an example, the system of a spin-1/2 interacting with an external magnetic field is analyzed. This geometric effect may be observed, for example, in an NMR experiment and can be applied to the problem of cooling/heating of a small system.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0509603,
  title  = {Geometric effect and gauge field in nonequilibrium quantum thermostatistics},
  author = {Sumiyoshi Abe and Satoshi Kaneko},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0509603},
  year   = {2009}
}

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11 pages