Related papers: Prethermalization and Thermalization in Isolated Q…
A large class of isolated quantum system in a pure state can equilibrate and serve as a heat bath. We show that once the equilibrium is reached, any of its subsystems that is much smaller than the isolated system is thermalized such that…
We study the out-of-equilibrium nonlinear dynamics of fields after post-inflationary preheating. During preheating, the energy in the homogeneous inflaton is exponentially rapidly transfered into highly occupied out-of-equilibrium…
A well-isolated system often shows relaxation to a quasi-stationary state before reaching thermal equilibrium. Such a prethermalization has attracted considerable interest recently in association with closely related fundamental problems of…
We study conservation laws of a general class of quantum many-body systems subjected to an external time dependent quasi-periodic driving. {When the frequency of the driving is large enough or the strength of the driving is small enough, we…
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…
Prethermalization of the equation of state and the kinetic temperature to their equilibrium values occurs on time scales dramatically shorter than the thermal equilibration time. This is a crucial ingredient for the understanding of…
We analyze a quantum mechanical gyroscope which is modeled as a large spin and used as a reference against which to measure the angular momenta of spin-1/2 particles. These measurements induce a back-action on the reference which is the…
Concepts like `typicality' and the `eigenstate thermalization hypothesis' aim at explaining the apparent equilibration of quantum systems, possibly after a very long time. However, these concepts are not concerned with the specific way in…
We study, both numerically and analytically, the development of equilibrium after preheating. We show that the process is characterised by the appearance of Kolmogorov spectra and the evolution towards thermal equilibrium follows…
We review the recent progress in the understanding of the relaxation of isolated near-integrable quantum many-body systems. Focusing on prethermalization and universal dynamics following a quench, we describe the experiments with ultracold…
Time evolution of a perturbed thermal state is studied in a quantum-mechanical system with O(N) symmetry. In the limit of large N, time dependence of O(N)-singlet expectation values can be described by classical equations of motion in a…
We study the time evolution of correlation functions in closed quantum systems for nonequilibrium ensembles of initial conditions. For a scalar quantum field theory we show that generic time-reversal invariant evolutions approach…
There is much interest in how quantum systems thermalize after a sudden change, because unitary evolution should preclude thermalization. The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis resolves this because all observables for quantum states in a…
Prethermalization refers to the relaxation to a quasi-stationary state before reaching thermal equilibrium. Recently, it is found that not only local conserved quantities but also entanglement plays a key role in a special type of…
Simulations are performed of a small quantum system interacting with a quantum environment. The system consists of various initial states of two harmonic oscillators coupled to give normal modes. The environment is "designed" by its level…
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…
An exact stochastic model for the thermalisation of quantum states is proposed. The model has various physically appealing properties. The dynamics are characterised by an underlying Schrodinger evolution, together with a nonlinear term…
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…
Eigenstate thermalization is widely accepted as the mechanism behind thermalization in generic isolated quantum systems. Using the example of a single magnetic defect embedded in the integrable spin-1/2 $XXZ$ chain, we show that locally…
We investigate the equilibration and thermalization properties of quantum systems interacting with a finite dimensional environment. By exploiting the concept of time averaged states, we introduce a completely positive map which allows to…