The lack of knowledge about the detailed many-particle motion on the microscopic scale is a key issue in any theoretical description of a macroscopic experiment. For systems at or close to thermal equilibrium, statistical mechanics provides a very successful general framework to cope with this problem. However, far from equilibrium, only very few quantitative and comparably universal results are known. Here a quantum mechanical prediction of this type is derived and verified against various experimental and numerical data from the literature. It quantitatively describes the entire temporal relaxation towards thermal equilibrium for a large class (in a mathematically precisely defined sense) of closed many-body systems, whose initial state may be arbitrarily far from equilibrium.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4773511 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10821 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Reviving the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem in open quantum systems.
Natl Sci Rev
January 2025
Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
In closed systems, the celebrated Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorem states that a one-dimensional locally interacting half-integer spin chain with translation and spin rotation symmetries cannot have a non-degenerate gapped ground state. However, the applicability of this theorem is diminished when the system interacts with a bath and loses its energy conservation. In this letter, we propose that the LSM theorem can be revived in the entanglement Hamiltonian when the coupling to the bath renders the system short-range correlated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObservation of quantum oscillations near the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit in CaAs.
Natl Sci Rev
December 2024
State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Institute for Nanoelectronic Devices and Quantum Computing, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
The Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit sets the lower bound of the carrier mean free path for coherent quasiparticle transport. Metallicity beyond this limit is of great interest because it is often closely related to quantum criticality and unconventional superconductivity. Progress along this direction mainly focuses on the strange-metal behaviors originating from the evolution of the quasiparticle scattering rate, such as linear-in-temperature resistivity, while the quasiparticle coherence phenomena in this regime are much less explored due to the short mean free path at the diffusive bound.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThermal mean-field theories.
J Chem Phys
December 2024
Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Several closely related ab initio thermal mean-field theories for fermions, both well-established and new ones, are compared with one another at the formalism level and numerically. The theories considered are Fermi-Dirac theory; thermal Hartree-Fock (HF) theory; two modifications of the thermal single-determinant approximation of Kaplan and Argyres, Ann. Phys.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhy hyperdensity functionals describe any equilibrium observable.
J Phys Condens Matter
December 2024
Theoretische Physik II, Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95447 Bayreuth, Germany.
We give an introductory account of the recent hyperdensity functional theory for the equilibrium statistical mechanics of soft matter systems (Sammüller2024098201). Hyperdensity functionals give access to the behaviour of arbitrary thermal observables in spatially inhomogeneous equilibrium many-body systems. The approach is based on classical density functional theory applied to an extended ensemble using standard functional techniques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany-body physics of ultracold alkaline-earth atoms with SU()-symmetric interactions.
J Phys Condens Matter
December 2024
Harish-Chandra Research Institute, a CI of Homi Bhabha National Institute, Chhatnag Road, Jhunsi, Allahabad 211019, India.
Symmetries play a crucial role in understanding phases of matter and the transitions between them. Theoretical investigations of quantum models with SU() symmetry have provided important insights into many-body phenomena. However, these models have generally remained a theoretical idealization, since it is very difficult to exactly realize the SU() symmetry in conventional quantum materials for large.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!