Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: It has been proposed to investigate the equilibration properties of a small isolated quantum system by means of the matrix of asymptotic transition probabilities in some preferential basis. The trace T of this matrix measures the degree of equilibration of the system prepared in a typical state of the preferential basis. This quantity may vary between unity (ideal equilibration) and the dimension N of the Hilbert space (no equilibration at all). Here we analyze several examples of simple systems where the behavior of T can be investigated by analytical means. We first study the statistics of T when the Hamiltonian governing the dynamics is random and drawn from a distribution invariant under the group U ( N ) or O ( N ) . We then investigate a quantum spin S in a tilted magnetic field making an arbitrary angle with the preferred quantization axis, as well as a tight-binding particle on a finite electrified chain. The last two cases provide examples of the interesting situation where varying a system parameter—such as the tilt angle or the electric field—through some scaling regime induces a continuous crossover from good to bad equilibration properties.
Author: J M Luck
Institution: Université Paris-Saclay
Language: English
Topic: Quantum many-body systems
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2606797717