Related papers: Prethermalization
The thermalization of an isolated quantum system is described by quantum mechanics and thermodynamics, while these two subjects are still not fully consistent with each other. This leaves a less-explored region where both quantum and…
Calculations of nonequilibrium processes become increasingly feasable in quantum field theory from first principles. There has been important progress in our analytical understanding based on 2PI generating functionals. In addition, for the…
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…
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…
Thermalization in highly excited quantum many-body system does not necessarily mean a complete memory loss of the way the system was formed. This effect may pave a way for a quantum computing, with a large number of qubits $n\simeq…
We discuss how the thermalization of an elementary quantum system is modified when the system is placed in an environment out of thermal equilibrium. To this aim we provide a detailed investigation of the dynamics of an atomic system placed…
Lack of knowledge about the detailed many-particle motion on the microscopic scale is a key issue in any theoretical description of a macroscopic experiment. For systems at or close to thermal equilibrium, statistical mechanics provides a…
A characteristic feature of thermalized non-equilibrated matter is that, in spite of energy relaxation--equilibration, a phase memory of the way the many-body system was excited remains. As an example, we analyze data on a strong forward…
Statistical mechanics can predict thermal equilibrium states for most classical systems, but for an isolated quantum system there is no general understanding on how equilibrium states dynamically emerge from the microscopic Hamiltonian. For…
Unconventional nonequilibrium phases with restricted correlation spreading and slow entanglement growth have been proposed to emerge in systems with confined excitations, calling their thermalization dynamics into question. Here, we show…
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…
This chapter discusses the conditions and timescales under which isolated many-body quantum systems, initially far from equilibrium, ultimately reach thermal equilibrium. We also examine quantities that, during the relaxation process,…
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…
For quantum systems that are weakly coupled to a much 'bigger' environment, thermalization of possibly far from equilibrium initial ensembles is demonstrated: for sufficiently large times, the ensemble is for all practical purposes…
We discuss the question of thermalization during the very early stages of a high energy heavy ion collision. We review a recent study where we explicitely showed that, contrarily to a widely used assumption, elastic collisions between the…
Hydrodynamical analysis of experimental data of ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions seems to indicate that the hot QCD matter created in the collisions thermalizes very quickly. Theoretically, we have no idea why this should be true. In…
We consider quenches of a quantum system that is prepared in a canonical equilibrium state of one Hamiltonian and then evolves unitarily in time under a different Hamiltonian. Technically, our main result is a systematic expansion of the…
We study thermal equilibration after preheating in inflationary cosmology, which is an important step towards a comprehensive understanding of cosmic thermal history. By noticing that the problem is parallel to thermalization after a…
Based on the view that thermal equilibrium should be characterized through macroscopic observations, we develop a general theory about typicality of thermal equilibrium and the approach to thermal equilibrium in macroscopic quantum systems.…
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics can provide strong advantages when compared to more standard equilibrium situations. Here, we present a general framework to study its application to concrete problems, which is valid also beyond the…