Non-conjugate quantum subsystems
Quantum Physics
2022-09-08 v2 Other Condensed Matter
Atomic Physics
Abstract
We introduce an alternative way to understand the decomposition of a quantum system into interacting parts and show that it is natural in several physical models. This enables us to define a reduced density operator for a working system interacting with a thermal bath that is consistent with the inclusion of the interaction Hamiltonian within the working system's energy. We subsequently provide a self-consistent formulation of quantum thermodynamics that incurs non-trivial physical corrections to thermodynamic relations and quantities previously defined within the literature.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2106.11017,
title = {Non-conjugate quantum subsystems},
author = {Adam Stokes},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.11017},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
14 pages + Appendix, 2 figures in main text, 2 figures in Appendix