Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: In statistical mechanics, any quantum system in equilibrium with its weakly coupled reservoir is described by a canonical state at the same temperature as the reservoir. Here, by studying the equilibration dynamics of a harmonic oscillator interacting with a reservoir, we evaluate microscopically the condition under which the equilibration to a canonical state is valid. It is revealed that the non-Markovian effect and the availability of a stationary state of the total system play a profound role in the equilibration. In the Markovian limit, the conventional canonical state can be recovered. In the non-Markovian regime, when the stationary state is absent, the system equilibrates to a generalized canonical state at an effective temperature; whenever the stationary state is present, the equilibrium state of the system cannot be described by any canonical state anymore. Our finding of the physical condition on such noncanonical equilibration might have significant impact on statistical physics. A physical scheme based on circuit QED is proposed to test our results.
Source: Physical Review E
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Research Foundation, Ministry of Education - Singapore, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China
OpenAlex ID: W2017048957