2006/12/31 by Carsten Timm
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.class-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.98.070604
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 070604 (2007) · 4 pages, 2 figures included, v2: minor revision, as published
arxiv created 2007/02/15 · openalex publication_date 2007/02/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Systems of coupled rate equations are ubiquitous in many areas of science, for example, in the description of electronic transport through quantum dots and molecules. They can be understood as a continuity equation expressing the conservation of probability. It is shown that this conservation law can be implemented by constructing a gauge theory akin to classical electrodynamics on the network of possible states described by the rate equations. The properties of this gauge theory are analyzed. It turns out that the network is maximally connected with respect to the electromagnetic fields even if the allowed transitions form a sparse network. It is found that the numbers of degrees of freedom of the electric and magnetic fields are equal. The results shed light on the structure of classical Abelian gauge theory beyond the particular motivation in terms of rate equations.