English

Quantum Approach to a Derivation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Quantum Physics 2009-11-07 v1

Abstract

We re-interprete the microcanonical conditions in the quantum domain as constraints for the interaction of the "gas-subsystem" under consideration and its environment ("container"). The time-average of a purity-measure is found to equal the average over the respective path in Hilbert-space. We then show that for typical (degenerate or non-degenerate) thermodynamical systems almost all states within the allowed region of Hilbert-space have a local von Neumann-entropy S close to the maximum and a purity P close to its minimum, respectively. Typically thermodynamical systems should therefore obey the second law.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0101140,
  title  = {Quantum Approach to a Derivation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics},
  author = {Jochen Gemmer and Alexander Otte and Guenter Mahler},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0101140},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 pages. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett