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The approach to thermal equilibrium, or thermalization, in isolated quantum systems is among the most fundamental problems in statistical physics. Recent theoretical studies have revealed that thermalization in isolated quantum systems has…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2018-05-23 Takashi Mori , Tatsuhiko N. Ikeda , Eriko Kaminishi , Masahito Ueda

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) provides a powerful framework for understanding thermalization in isolated quantum many-body systems, yet a complete and conceptually transparent derivation has remained elusive. In this work,…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-12-23 Yucheng Wang

We show, without relying on any unproven assumptions, that a low-density free fermion chain exhibits thermalization in the following (restricted) sense. We choose the initial state as a pure state drawn randomly from the Hilbert space in…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2026-04-13 Naoto Shiraishi , Hal Tasaki

The extrinsic quantum mechanical arrow of time is understood to be a consequence of the interaction between quantum systems and their environment. A choice of boundary conditions for the Schr\"odinger equation results in a different time…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2009-06-30 P. W. Bryant

Eigenstate thermalization refers to the property that an energy eigenstate of a many-body system is indistinguishable from a thermal equilibrium ensemble at the same energy as far as expectation values of local observables are concerned. In…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2026-03-25 Lennart Dabelow , Christian Eidecker-Dunkel , Peter Reimann

In both thermodynamics and quantum mechanics the arrow of time is characterized by the statistical likelihood of physical processes. We characterize this arrow of time for the continuous quantum measurement dynamics of a superconducting…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-07-17 P. M. Harrington , D. Tan , M. Naghiloo , K. W. Murch

The emergence of statistical mechanics for isolated classical systems comes about through chaotic dynamics and ergodicity. Here we review how similar questions can be answered in quantum systems. The crucial point is that individual energy…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-07-25 Joshua M. Deutsch

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…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2009-10-30 D. C. Brody , L. P. Hughston

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) posits how isolated quantum many-body systems thermalize, assuming that individual eigenstates at the same energy density have identical expectation values of local observables in the limit of…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2026-01-14 Maksym Serbyn , Alexander Avdoshkin , Oriana K. Diessel , David A. Huse

Understanding the emergence of the thermodynamic arrow of time in microscopic systems is of fundamental importance, particularly given that unitary evolution preserves time-reversal symmetry. While projective measurements introduce temporal…

The concept of entropy is fundamental to thermalization, yet appears at odds with basic principles in quantum mechanics. Statistical mechanics relies on the maximization of entropy for a system at thermal equilibrium. However, an isolated…

Considering the recently established arbitrariness the Schroedinger equation has to be interpreted as an equation of motion for a statistical ensemble of particles. The statistical qualities of individual particles derive from the unknown…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2008-02-03 W. A. Hofer

Thermalization of isolated quantum systems has been studied intensively in recent years and significant progresses have been achieved. Here, we study thermalization of small quantum systems that interact with large chaotic environments…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-06-05 Jiaozi Wang , Wen-ge Wang , Jiao Wang

This paper presents a unified formulation of the origin of the arrow of time in classical and quantum mechanics. We begin with a mechanical analysis of a one-dimensional three-particle system, which provides a concrete example in which…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-12-19 Shuhei Kobayashi

It is one of the most important and long-standing issues of physics to derive the irreversibility out of a time-reversal symmetric equation of motion. The present paper considers the breaking of the time-reversal symmetry in open quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-04-10 Naomichi Hatano , Gonzalo Ordonez

This paper is a natural continuation of our previous paper arXiv:1011.4173 . We illustrated earlier that in classical Hamilton mechanics, for overwhelming majority of real chaotic macroscopic systems, alignment of their thermodynamic time…

General Physics · Physics 2013-07-15 Oleg Kupervasser

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH), which asserts that every eigenstate of a many-body quantum system is indistinguishable from a thermal ensemble, plays a pivotal role in understanding thermalization of isolated quantum…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-05-27 Shoki Sugimoto , Ryusuke Hamazaki , Masahito Ueda

Using the ergodicity principle for the expectation values of several types of observables, we investigate the thermalization process in isolated fermionic systems. These are described by the two-body random ensemble, which is a paradigmatic…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-05-27 V. K. B. Kota , A. Relaño , J. Retamosa , Manan Vyas

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…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-02-02 Lennart Dabelow , Patrick Vorndamme , Peter Reimann

If we prepare an isolated, interacting quantum system in an eigenstate and perturb a local observable at an initial time, its expectation value will relax towards a thermal expectation value, even though the time evolution of the system is…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2024-06-04 Tobias Helbig , Tobias Hofmann , Ronny Thomale , Martin Greiter