Related papers: Equilibration of quasi-isolated quantum systems
We investigate the equilibration of an isolated macroscopic quantum system in the sense that deviations from a steady state become unmeasurably small for the overwhelming majority of times within any sufficiently large time interval. The…
A physical system is called quasi-isolated if it subject to small random uncontrollable perturbations. Such a system is, in general, stochastically unstable. Moreover, its phase-space volume at asymptotically large time expands. This can be…
The evolution of observable quantities of finite quantum systems is analyzed when the latter are subject to nondestructive measurements. The type and number of measurements characterize the level of decoherence produced in the system. A…
We characterize the conditions under which a multi-time quantum process with a finite temporal resolution can be approximately described by an equilibrium one. By providing a generalization of the notion of equilibration on average, where a…
It has recently been shown that small quantum subsystems generically equilibrate, in the sense that they spend most of the time close to a fixed equilibrium state. This relies on just two assumptions: that the state is spread over many…
The question of how irreversibility can emerge as a generic phenomena when the underlying mechanical theory is reversible has been a long-standing fundamental problem for both classical and quantum mechanics. We describe a mechanism for the…
A quantum mechanical explanation of the relaxation to equilibrium is shown for macroscopic systems for nonintegrable cases and numerically verified. The macroscopic system is initially in an equilibrium state, subsequently externally…
Determining the role of initial conditions in the late time evolution is a key issue for the theory of nonequilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum systems. Here we extend the theory of quantum quenches to the case in which before the quench…
In how far does an non-equilibrium initial ensemble evolve towards a stationary long time behavior for an isolated macroscopic quantum system? We demonstrate that deviations from a steady state indeed become unmeasurably small or…
We unify two recent results concerning equilibration in quantum theory. We first generalise a proof of Reimann [PRL 101,190403 (2008)], that the expectation value of 'realistic' quantum observables will equilibrate under very general…
An isolated quantum system is considered, prepared in a nonequilibrium initial state. In order to uniquely define the system dynamics, one has to construct a representative statistical ensemble. From the principle of least action it follows…
Equilibrium is a rather ideal situation, the exception rather than the rule in Nature. Whenever the external or internal parameters of a physical system are varied its subsequent relaxation to equilibrium may be either impossible or take…
Experiments with trapped atomic gases have opened novel possibilities for studying the evolution of nonequilibrium finite quantum systems, which revived the necessity of reconsidering and developing the theory of such processes. This review…
We demonstrate equilibration of isolated many-body systems in the sense that, after initial transients have died out, the system behaves practically indistinguishable from a time-independent steady state, i.e., non-negligible deviations are…
Equilibrium statistical mechanics provides powerful tools to understand physics at the macroscale. Yet, the question remains how this can be justified based on a microscopic quantum description. Here, we extend the ideas of pure state…
Two identical finite quantum systems prepared initially at different temperatures, isolated from the environment, and subsequently brought into contact are demonstrated to relax towards Gibbs-like quasi-equilibrium states with a common…
By using a physically-relevant and theory independent definition of measurement-based equilibration, we show quantitatively that equilibration is easier for quantum systems than for classical systems, in the situation where the initial…
We study the equilibration properties of isolated ergodic quantum systems initially prepared in a cat state, i.e a macroscopic quantum superposition of states. Our main result consists in showing that, even though decoherence is at work in…
Characterization and quantification of non-Markovian dynamics in open quantum systems are topical issues in the rapidly developing field of quantum computation and quantum communication. A standard approach based on the notion of…
Considering any Hamiltonian, any initial state, and measurements with a small number of possible outcomes compared to the dimension, we show that most measurements are already equilibrated. To investigate non-trivial equilibration we…