English

Minimal Fokker-Planck theory for the thermalization of mesoscopic subsystems

Statistical Mechanics 2013-02-01 v3 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We explore a minimal paradigm for thermalization, consisting of two weakly-coupled, low dimensional, non-integrable subsystems. As demonstrated for Bose-Hubbard trimers, chaotic ergodicity results in a diffusive response of each subsystem, insensitive to the details of the drive exerted on it by the other. This supports the hypothesis that thermalization can be described by a Fokker Plank equation. We also observe, however, that Levy-flight type anomalies may arise in mesoscopic systems, due to the wide range of time scales that characterize `sticky' dynamics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1210.2607,
  title  = {Minimal Fokker-Planck theory for the thermalization of mesoscopic subsystems},
  author = {Igor Tikhonenkov and Amichay Vardi and James R. Anglin and Doron Cohen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.2607},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

7 pages, 6 figures, proofed version including the supplementary material