Related papers: Prethermalization with negative specific heat
We question the microcanonical hypothesis, often made to account for the thermalization of complex closed quantum systems, on the specific example of a chain of two-level atoms optically driven by a resonant laser beam and strongly…
We consider the set of all initial states within a microcanonical energy shell of an isolated many-body quantum system, which exhibit the same, arbitrary but fixed non-equilibrium expectation value for some given observable $A$. On…
We show that confinement in the quantum Ising model leads to nonthermal eigenstates, in both continuum and lattice theories, in both one (1D) and two dimensions (2D). In the ordered phase, the presence of a confining longitudinal field…
We establish an analytical criterion for dynamical thermalization within harmonic systems, applicable to both classical and quantum models. Specifically, we prove that thermalization of various observables, such as particle energies in…
We investigate a two-level system in resonant contact with a larger environment. The environment typically is in a canonical state with a given temperature initially. Depending on the precise spectral structure of the environment and the…
In recent years, much attention has been paid to the development of techniques which transfer trapped particles to very low temperatures. Here we focus our attention on a heating mechanism which contributes to the finite temperature limit…
We consider a quantum system weakly coupled to a large heat bath of harmonic oscillators. It is well known that such a boson bath initially at thermal equilibrium thermalises the system. We show that assuming a priori an equilibrium state…
We develop a rigorous system-agnostic method to predict quantum thermalization in an overwhelming fraction of accessible pure states in a many-body system, entirely in terms of certain out-of-time-ordered correlators of few-body…
Periodically driven closed quantum many-body systems are known to exhibit prethermal or quasi-steady-state dynamics. In this work, we theoretically show that such prethermal phases can appear in the dynamics of a dipolar two-spin-$1/2$…
Ultrafast laser radiation or beams of fast charged particles primarily excite the electronic system of a solid driving the target transiently out of thermal equilibrium. Apart from the nonequilibrium between the electrons and atoms, each…
The process of thermalization in many-body systems is driven by complex interactions among sub-systems and with the surrounding environment. Here we lay the theoretical foundations for the active control of local thermal states in arbitrary…
The nonlinear development of the strong Buneman instability and the associated fast electron heating in thin current layers with $\Omega_e/\omega_{pe} <1$ are explored. Phase mixing of the electrons in wave potential troughs and a rapid…
The microcanonical ensemble is in important physical situations different from the canonical one even in the thermodynamic limit. In contrast to the canonical ensemble it does not suppress spatially inhomogeneous configurations like phase…
By using the holographic approach, we investigate the interplay between the order parameter and Goldstone modes in the real-time dynamics of the chiral phase transition. By quenching the system to a different thermal bath and obtaining…
We consider isolated many-body quantum systems which do not thermalize, i.e., expectation values approach an (approximately) steady longtime limit which disagrees with the microcanonical prediction of equilibrium statistical mechanics. A…
The nonexponential relaxation ocurring in complex dynamics manifested in a wide variety of systems is analyzed through a simple model of diffusion in phase space. It is found that the inability of the system to find its equilibrium state in…
We propose a route towards engineering non-thermal states of matter, which show largely unexplored physics. The main idea relies on the adiabatic passage of a thermal ensemble under slow variations of the system Hamiltonian. If the…
Well known results in string thermodynamics show that there is always a negative specific heat phase in the microcanonical description of a gas of closed free strings whenever there are no winding modes present. We will carefully compute…
We study the warming process of a semi-infinite cylindrical Ising lattice initially ordered and coupled at the boundary to a heat reservoir. The adoption of a proper microcanonical dynamics allows a detailed study of the time evolution of…
In this paper we study the thermalization of a spatially homogeneous system in a strongly coupled CFT. The non-equilibrium initial state is created by switching on a relevant perturbation in the CFT vacuum during Delta t >= t >= -Delta t.…