2019/06/18 by Peter Reimann, Jochen Gemmer · 30 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #A priori and a posteriori #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Algorithm #Computer science #Ensemble average #Observable #Physics #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #State (computer science) #Statistical physics #cond-mat.stat-mech #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physa.2019.121840
published in Physica A Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 552, 121840 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 2019/06/18 · arxiv created 2020/05/29 · arxiv updated 2020/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Evidently, physical experiments are practically reproducible even though the fully identical preparation of initial state wave functions is often far beyond experimental possibilities. It is thus natural to explore if and in which sense specific, uncontrollable features of initial wave functions are irrelevant for the observable course of an experiment. To this end we define ensembles of pure states which are then shown to generate extremely similar non-equilibrium dynamics of the expectation values of practically all standard observables. The ensembles are constructed to comply with some reduced, coarse a priori information on the state of the system, like, e.g. a few specific expectation values, etc. However, different types of ensembles with different additional properties are possible. We discuss some of them.