Quantum thermal equilibration from equipartition

Abstract

The problem of mutual equilibration between two finite, identical quantum systems, A and B, prepared initially at different temperatures is elucidated. We show that the process of energy exchange between the two systems leads to accurate equipartition within energy shells in the Hilbert space of the total non-interacting, composite system, A \otimes B. This scenario occurs under the general condition of a weak interaction between the systems. We predict that the sole hypothesis of such equipartition is sufficient to obtain a relaxation of the peers, A and B, towards a common thermal-like state. This conjecture is fully corroborated by an exact diagonalization of several quantum models.

Accepted to EPL, 6 pages, 6 figures

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Energy diffusion in the ergodic phase of a many body localizable spin chain
• Quantum Decoherence Scaling with Bath Size: Importance of Dynamics, Connectivity, and Randomness
• Quantum Hertz entropy increase in a quenched spin chain
• Thermalization in closed quantum systems: semiclassical approach
• Full density matrix dynamics for large quantum systems: Interactions, Decoherence and Inelastic effects
• Quantum Decoherence and Thermalization at Finite Temperature within the Canonical Thermal State Ensemble
• Quantum Decoherence at Finite Temperatures
• Thermal Contact: Mischief and Time Scales