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Related papers: Macroscopic and Microscopic Thermal Equilibrium

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Isolated quantum systems typically approach thermal equilibrium as described by the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH). Going beyond this involves either higher order correlators (full thermalization) or the formation of state…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-05-01 Tabea Herrmann , Felix Fritzsch , Arnd Bäcker

Thermalization (generalized thermalization) in nonintegrable (integrable) quantum systems requires two ingredients: equilibration and agreement with the predictions of the Gibbs (generalized Gibbs) ensemble. We prove that observables that…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-08-10 Patrycja Łydżba , Marcin Mierzejewski , Marcos Rigol , Lev Vidmar

Classical thermodynamics treats temperature as a state variable characterizing systems in equilibrium with idealized infinite reservoirs. We argue that this framing, while computationally exact, obscures an essential physical reality: any…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-04-14 David Vaknin

We propose a new approach to justify the use of the microcanonical ensemble for isolated macroscopic quantum systems. Since there are huge number of independent observables in a macroscopic system, we cannot see all of them. Actually what…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2008-02-25 Ayumu Sugita

Nonequilibrium dynamics of a nonintegrable system without the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis is studied. It is shown that, in the thermodynamic limit, this model thermalizes after an arbitrary quantum quench at finite temperature,…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2017-09-06 Takashi Mori , Naoto Shiraishi

In quantum statistical mechanics, equilibrium states have been shown to be the typical states for a system that is entangled with its environment, suggesting a possible identification between thermodynamic and von Neumann entropies. In this…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-06-28 Thibaut Josset

Understanding how out-of-equilibrium states thermalize under quantum unitary dynamics is an important problem in many-body physics. In this work, we propose a statistical ansatz for the matrix elements of non-equilibrium initial states in…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-04-30 Laura Foini , Anatoly Dymarsky , Silvia Pappalardi

The zeroth law of thermodynamics involves a transitivity relation (pairwise between three objects) expressed either in terms of `equal temperature' (ET), or `in equilibrium' (EQ) conditions. In conventional thermodynamics conditional on…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-04-21 Jen-Tsung Hsiang , Bei-Lok Hu

One of the main questions of research on quantum many-body systems following unitary out of equilibrium dynamics is to find out how local expectation values equilibrate in time. For non-interacting models, this question is rather well…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-04-24 H. Wilming , M. Goihl , C. Krumnow , J. Eisert

The laws of thermodynamics provide a clear concept of the temperature for an equilibrium system in the continuum limit. Meanwhile, the equipartition theorem allows one to make a connection between the ensemble average of the kinetic energy…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2009-11-13 Alex V. Popov , Rigoberto Hernandez

The building blocks of Nature, namely atoms and elementary particles, are described by quantum mechanics. This fundamental theory is the ground on which physicists have built their major mathematical models [1]. Today, the unique features…

The energetics of the stochastic process has shown the balance of energy on the mesoscopic level. The heat and the energy defined there are, however, generally different from their macroscopic counterpart. We show that this discrepancy can…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2009-11-13 Ken Sekimoto

We consider many-body quantum systems that exhibit quantum chaos, in the sense that the observables of interest act on energy eigenstates like banded random matrices. We study the time-dependent expectation values of these observables,…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2009-10-31 Mark Srednicki

We study the transition probabilities of a two-point measurement on a quantum system, initially prepared in a thermal state. We find two independent constraints on the difference between transition probabilities when the system is prepared…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2025-05-20 Ludovico Tesser , Matteo Acciai , Christian Spånslätt , Inès Safi , Janine Splettstoesser

The heat flow between a quantum system and its reservoir is analyzed when initially both are in a separable thermal state and asymptotically approach a correlated equilibrium. General findings are illustrated for specific systems and…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2015-06-19 Joachim Ankerhold , Jukka P. Pekola

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…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2014-03-13 Sergei Khlebnikov , Martin Kruczenski

Understanding relaxation processes is an important unsolved problem in many areas of physics. A key challenge in studying such non-equilibrium dynamics is the scarcity of experimental tools for characterizing their complex transient states.…

A quantum system and a thermal bath can reach thermal equilibrium through an interaction, whereupon the system acquires the same temperature as the bath. But how does a delocalised quantum system thermalise with a bath whose local…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-01-06 Carolyn E. Wood , Harshit Verma , Fabio Costa , Magdalena Zych

A fundamental principle of chaotic quantum dynamics is that local subsystems eventually approach a thermal equilibrium state. Large subsystems thermalize slower: their approach to equilibrium is limited by the hydrodynamic build-up of…

Concepts of everyday use like energy, heat, and temperature have acquired a precise meaning after the development of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics provides the basis for understanding how heat and work are related and with the general…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 D. Reguera , J. M. Rubi , J. M. G. Vilar