A Quantum Model for Entropic Springs

Abstract

Motivated by understanding the emergence of thermodynamic restoring forces and oscillations, we develop a quantum-mechanical model of a bath of spins coupled to the elasticity of a material. We show our model reproduces the behavior of a variety of entropic springs while enabling investigation of non-equilibrium resonator states in the quantum domain. We find our model emerges naturally in disordered elastic media such as glasses, and is an additional, expected effect in systems with anomalous specific heat and 1/f noise at low temperatures due to two-level systems that fluctuate.

7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Sideband Cooling Micromechanical Motion to the Quantum Ground State
• 1/f noise: implications for solid-state quantum information
• Extremely Low Loss Phonon-Trapping Cryogenic Acoustic Cavities for Future Physical Experiments
• Time-Resolved Measurement of a Charge Qubit

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Tabletop experiments for quantum gravity: a user's manual
• Newton, entanglement, and the graviton
• On the quantum mechanics of entropic forces