Related papers: Mixing indistinguishable systems leads to a quantu…
In the mid-19th century, both the laws of mechanics and thermodynamics were known, and both appeared fundamental. This was changed by Boltzmann and Gibbs, who showed that thermodynamics can be *derived*, by applying mechanics to very large…
Quantum mechanics marks a radical departure from the classical understanding of Nature, fostering an inherent randomness which forbids a deterministic description; yet the most fundamental departure arises from something different. As shown…
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is one of the main tenets of quantum theory. Nevertheless, and despite its fundamental importance for our understanding of quantum foundations, there has been some confusion in its interpretation: although…
A goal of most interpretations of quantum mechanics is to avoid the apparent intrusion of the observer into the measurement process. Such intrusion is usually seen to arise because observation somehow selects a single actuality from among…
The statistical mechanics of particles that populate indistinguishable energy sub-states is explored. In particular, the mathematical treatment of the microstates differs from conventional statistical mechanics where for a given degeneracy,…
The standard treatment of relativistic thermodynamics does not allow for a systematic treatment of mixtures. It is proposed that a formulation of thermodynamics as an action principle may be a suitable approach to adopt for a new…
Here we continue with the ideas expressed in "On the strangeness of quantum mechanics" aiming to demonstrate more concretely how this philosophical outlook might be used as a key for resolving the measurement problem. We will address in…
Bohr's principle of complementarity lies at the central place of quantum mechanics, according to which the light is chosen to behave as a wave or particles, depending on some exclusive detecting devices. Later, intermediate cases are found,…
Small systems consisting of a few particles are increasingly technologically relevant. In such systems, an intense debate in microcanonical statistical mechanics has been about the correctness of Boltzmann's surface entropy versus Gibbs'…
The connection between gravity and thermodynamics is explored. Examining a perfect fluid in gravitational equilibrium we find that the entropy is extremal only if Einstein's equations are satisfied. Conversely, one can derive part of…
There is a paradox in the standard model of cosmology. How can matter in the early universe have been in thermal equilibrium, indicating maximum entropy, but the initial state also have been low entropy (the "past hypothesis"), so as to…
By using numerical simulations, we investigate the dynamics of a quantum system of interacting bosons. We find an increase of properly defined mixing properties when the number of particles increases at constant density or the interaction…
We use charge sensing to detect entropy changes in a double quantum dot defined by electrostatic gating of a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. This system can be tuned to be two separate systems, like two independent, artificial atoms, or a…
The entropy produced when a system undergoes an infinitesimal quench is directly linked to the work parameter susceptibility, making it sensitive to the existence of a quantum critical point. Its singular behavior at $T=0$, however,…
Quantum superposition, a cornerstone of quantum mechanics, enables systems to exist in multiple states simultaneously, giving rise to probabilistic outcomes. In quantum information science, conditional entropy has become a key metric for…
We address the problem of unambiguous discrimination among a given set of quantum operations. The necessary and sufficient condition for them to be unambiguously distinguishable is derived in the cases of single use and multiple uses…
The connection between the non-equilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems and statistical mechanics is a fundamental open question. It is generally believed that the unitary quantum evolution of a sufficiently complex system…
We investigate a system of two interacting qubits having one of them isolated and the other coupled to a thermal reservoir. We consider two different models of system-reservoir interaction: i) a "microscopic" model, in which the master…
We study improper mixtures from a quantum logical and geometrical point of view. Taking into account the fact that improper mixtures do not admit an ignorance interpretation and must be considered as states in their own right, we do not…
We analyze cosmology assuming unitary quantum mechanics, using a tripartite partition into system, observer and environment degrees of freedom. This generalizes the second law of thermodynamics to "The system's entropy can't decrease unless…