Foundation of Statistical Mechanics under experimentally realistic conditions

2008/10/17 by Peter Reimann · 1 voice · 40 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Model Reduction and Neural Networks #Quantum many-body systems #cond-mat.stat-mech

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.190403

Accepted in Phys. Rev. Lett

arxiv created 2008/10/17 · openalex publication_date 2008/11/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

We demonstrate the equilibration of isolated macroscopic quantum systems, prepared in non-equilibrium mixed states with significant population of many energy levels, and observed by instruments with a reasonably bound working range compared to the resolution limit. Both properties are fulfilled under many, if not all, experimentally realistic conditions. At equilibrium, the predictions and limitations of Statistical Mechanics are recovered.

Citations

• The approach to thermal equilibrium in quantized chaotic systems
• On the Distribution of the Wave Function for Systems in Thermal Equilibrium
• Typicality of Pure States Randomly Sampled According to the Gaussian Adjusted Projected Measure
• Quantum statistical mechanics in a closed system
• Stochastic Processes in Physics and Chemistry

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• Typicality in random matrix product states
• Typical fast thermalization processes in closed many-body systems
• Thouless energy challenges thermalization on the ergodic side of the many-body localization transition
• Effect of Rare Fluctuations on the Thermalization of Isolated Quantum Systems
• Symmetry-prohibited thermalization after a quantum quench
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• Why are macroscopic experiments reproducible? Imitating the behavior of an ensemble by single pure states

Discussions

• A more quantum version of this insight has been first formalized by Reimann's doi.org/10.1103/Phys..., after which there have been many amazing works exploring how expectation values can equilibrate i [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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