2017/10/02 by Anthony Bartolotta, Sebastian Deffner · 2 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Classical mechanics #Formalism (music) #Mathematics #Observable #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum field theory #Quantum gravity #Quantum mechanics #Renormalization #Renormalization group #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field #Scalar field theory #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #Statistical physics #Theoretical physics #cond-mat.stat-mech #hep-th #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevx.8.011033
published as Phys. Rev. X 8, 011033 (2018) · 19 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2017/10/02 · openalex publication_date 2018/02/27 · arxiv updated 2018/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The fluctuation theorems, and in particular, the Jarzynski equality, are the most important pillars of modern nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. We extend the quantum Jarzynski equality together with the two-time measurement formalism to their ultimate range of validity-to quantum field theories. To this end, we focus on a time-dependent version of scalar 4 . We find closed-form expressions for the resulting work distribution function, and we find that they are proper physical observables of the quantum field theory. Also, we show explicitly that the Jarzynski equality and Crooks fluctuation theorems hold at oneloop order independent of the renormalization scale. As a numerical case study, we compute the work distributions for an infinitely smooth protocol in the ultrarelativistic regime. In this case, it is found that work done through processes with pair creation is the dominant contribution.