English

Statistical mechanics from relational complex time with a pure state

Quantum Physics 2024-05-13 v1

Abstract

Thermodynamics and its quantum counterpart are traditionally described with statistical ensembles. Canonical typicality has related statistical mechanics for a system to ensembles of global energy eigen- states of system and its environment analyzing their cardinality. We show that the canonical density for a system emerges from a maximally entangled global state of system and environment through relational complex time evolution between system and environment without the need to maximize the entropy or to count states.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.06401,
  title  = {Statistical mechanics from relational complex time with a pure state},
  author = {Sebastian Gemsheim and Jan M. Rost},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.06401},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

3 pages, accepted by PRD as a letter

R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:23:07.379Z