Related papers: On the origin of thermality
Several recent results on thermodynamics have been obtained using the tools of quantum information theory and resource theories. So far, the resource theories utilised to describe thermodynamics have assumed the existence of an infinite…
The 2nd law of thermodynamics yields an irreversible increase in entropy until thermal equilibrium is achieved. This irreversible increase is often assumed to require large and complex systems to emerge from the reversible microscopic laws…
The fundamental assumption of statistical mechanics is that the system is equally likely in any of the accessible microstates. Based on this assumption, the Boltzmann distribution is derived and the full theory of statistical thermodynamics…
A pure quantum state can fully describe thermal equilibrium as long as one focuses on local observables. Thermodynamic entropy can also be recovered as the entanglement entropy of small subsystems. When the size of the subsystem increases,…
In this paper we discuss black hole solutions parametrized by their entropy $\mathcal{S}$ and temperature $\mathcal{T}$ in gravitational effective theories. We are especially interested in the analysis of the boundary regions in the…
Based on the view that thermal equilibrium should be characterized through macroscopic observations, we develop a general theory about typicality of thermal equilibrium and the approach to thermal equilibrium in macroscopic quantum systems.…
From a new rigorous formulation of the general axiomatic foundations of thermodynamics we derive an operational definition of entropy that responds to the emergent need in many technological frameworks to understand and deploy thermodynamic…
The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH), which dictates that all diagonal matrix elements within a small energy shell be almost equal, is a major candidate to explain thermalization in isolated quantum systems. According to the…
Inspired by the avalanche scenario for many-body localization (MBL) instability, we reverse the conventional set-up and ask whether a large weakly-disordered chain can thermalize a smaller, strongly-disordered chain when the composite…
When studying thermalization of quantum systems, it is typical to ask whether a system interacting with an environment will evolve towards a local thermal state. Here, we show that a more general and relevant question is "when does a system…
We investigate a weak version of subsystem eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) for a two-dimensional large central charge conformal field theory by comparing the local equivalence of high energy state and thermal state of canonical…
The features of the fundamental thermodynamical relation (expressing entropy as function of state variables) that arise from the self-gravitating character of a system are analyzed. The models studied include not only a spherically…
Due to the attractor mechanism, the entropy of an extremal black hole does not vary continuously as we vary the asymptotic values of various moduli fields. Using this fact we argue that the entropy of an extremal black hole in string…
We call a state ``vacuum bounded'' if every measurement performed outside a specified interior region gives the same result as in the vacuum. We compute the maximum entropy of a vacuum-bounded state with a given energy for a one-dimensional…
We define the entropy S and uncertainty function of a squeezed system interacting with a thermal bath, and study how they change in time by following the evolution of the reduced density matrix in the influence functional formalism. As…
When the difference between changes in energy and entropy at a given temperature is correlated with the ratio between the same changes in energy and entropy at zero average free energy of an ensemble of similar but distinct molecule-sized…
For an isolated assembly that comprises a system and its surrounding reservoirs, the total entropy ($S_{a}$) always monotonically increases as time elapses. This phenomenon is known as the second law of thermodynamics ($S_{a}\geq0$). Here…
The Tsallis-Cirto non-extensive statistics with $\delta=2$ describes the processes of splitting and merging of black holes and their thermodynamics. Here we consider a toy model, which matches this generalized statistics and extends it by…
Understanding the evolution towards thermal equilibrium of an isolated quantum system is at the foundation of statistical mechanics and a subject of interest in such diverse areas as cold atom physics or the quantum mechanics of black…
Deriving conditions under which a macroscopic system thermalizes directly from the underlying quantum many-body dynamics of its microscopic constituents is a long-standing challenge in theoretical physics. The well-known eigenstate…