This paper gives an overview of recent results concerning the long time dynamics of repeated interaction quantum systems in a deterministic and random framework. We describe the non equilibrium steady states (NESS) such systems display and we present, as a macroscopic consequence, a second law of thermodynamics these NESS give rise to. We also explain in some details the analysis of products of certain random matrices underlying this dynamical problem.
This paper gives an overview of recent results concerning the long time dynamics of repeated interaction quantum systems in a deterministic and random framework. We describe the non equilibrium steady states (NESS) such systems display and we present, as a macroscopic consequence, a second law of thermodynamics these NESS give rise to. We also explain in some details the analysis of products of certain random matrices underlying this dynamical problem.
We improve on our version of the second law of thermodynamics as a deterministic theorem for quantum spin systems [ 1 ] in two basic aspects. The first concerns the general statement of the second law: spontaneous changes in an adiabatically closed system will always be in the direction of increasing (mean) entropy, which rises to a maximal value. In order to arrive at this statement, we have to extend the previous definition of adiabatic transformation, in order to include sudden interactions, and thereby generalize the “barrier model”. The cornerstone of the second law is then seen to be the fact that the dynamics may induce a basic structural transition between states of infinite systems in the limit of large times, which, physically, represent times much larger than specific relaxation times. Two specific examples concern the transition from pure to mixed states in two different universality classes of dynamics in one dimension, one being the exponential model, which has exactly soluble dynamics and does not display a phase transition, the other the Dyson model(s), for which neither the dynamics nor the statistical mechanics are exactly soluble, and which do exhibit a (ferromagnetic) phase transition, first demonstrated by Dyson. It is also shown, as a consequence of results of Albert and Kiessling on the Cloitre function, that there is strong graphical evidence that the dynamics of the Dyson models are chaotic for large times, and, thereby, that the mechanisms of approach to equilibrium differ for these two universality classes in a profound way, which depend exclusively on the dynamics, and not on the states and observables.
Recently, the possibility of investigating single molecule, or single spin observables, as well as the necessity of a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying quantum dynamics in order to obtain nanoscale devices and nanostructered materials suitable for quantum computing tasks, have revived the interest in foundational aspects of quantum statistical mechanics. This thesis aims to give a contribution to this field by re-considering the statistical characterization of a quantum system at the light of some paradigmatic changes in our understanding of quantum theory which have taken place in the last two decades. In particular the impressive development of quantum information theory has changed the perceptions of quantum entanglement: for a long time it has been considered a somewhat paradoxical property of the matter at the atomic scale, but now it is regarded as an essential and ubiquitous phenomenon whose consequences are affecting the very macroscopic world that we experience. Still the decoherence program has brought out the importance of considering a quantum system together with its environment in order to clarify some key aspects of quantum dynamics. Thus, we start from the idea that quantum correlations are ubiquitous and somewhat uncontrollable in systems with many degrees of freedom which are typically considered in statistical mechanics. As a consequence we assume the standpoint that quantum statistical mechanics has not to be based on the underlying idea of a collection of many, independent quantum systems but rather it has to emerge at the level of a global wavefunction (pure state) which describes the system as well as its environment as a whole. In order to investigate the consequences of these assumptions we study the equilibrium distribution of an isolated quantum system. This is defined, in analogy with the ergodic foundations of classical statistical mechanics, on the basis of the time evolution of the quantum state. Then, we study the emergence of thermodynamic properties in a quantum system by studying the probability distribution of some function of interests, as the entropy and the equilibrium state of a subsystem, on Ensembles of Pure States. Such a probability distribution is derived from the geometry of the Hilbert space, and the theoretical tools suitable for its characterization are developed. On the one hand we perform a numerical sampling of the ensemble distributions by employing Monte Carlo techniques, on the other hand simpler analytical approximation of the geometrical distributions are derived by means of a maximum entropy principle. Model systems composed of an ensemble of spins are chosen to illustrate the salient features which emerge from the developed theoretical framework: the main point is that the Ensemble Distributions of “thermodynamic observables” (entropy or equilibrium state of a subsystem) are sharply peaked around a typical value. From the analysis it emerges that each of the overwhelming majority of the wavefunctions which has appreciable weight in the considered ensemble, is characterized by the same value of the “macroscopic” functions. This is a striking evidence of the “typicality” of these properties. In the essence, our impossibility to know the state of the system in detail does not matter, just for the remarkable fact that almost all quantum states behave essentially in the same way. By virtue of this typicality the study of the behaviour of the typical values of the thermodynamic function become meaningful. Notably, under certain conditions, one recovers the results of standard statistical mechanics, that is, the equilibrium average of the state of a subsystem can be cast in the Boltzmann canonical form at the temperature given by the usual thermodynamical relation . In the second part of the thesis we consider the dynamical aspects of the equilibrium state of a subsystem interacting with its environment. The fluctuations around the equilibrium average critically depends on the entanglement between the system and the environment and on the form of the interaction Hamiltonian. The connection between the dynamics of the fluctuations of an observable at the equilibrium and the relaxation toward the equilibrium from a “non typical” initial value is also investigated with the aid of simple model systems. The study presented in this thesis was partly motivated by a critical analysis of the statistical methods available for the theoretical modelling of magnetic resonance experiments. One of these, the Stochastic Liouville Equation, has been employed in a work completed during the first year of my Ph.D. program in order to interpret some feature of a two dimensional electron spin resonance experiment, [Fresch B., Frezzato D., Moro G. J., Kothe G., Freed J. H.; J. Phys. Chem. B., 110, 24238, (2006)].
We improve on our version of the second law of thermodynamics as a deterministic theorem for quantum spin systems in two basic aspects. The first concerns the general statement of the second law: spontaneous changes in an adiabatically closed system will always be in the direction of increasing mean entropy, which rises to a maximal value. Two specific examples concern the transition from pure to mixed states in two different universality classes of dynamics in one dimension, one being the exponential model, the other the Dyson model, the dynamics of the latter exhibiting strong graphical evidence of quantum chaos, as a consequence of the results of Albert and Kiessling on the Cloitre function.
We consider a quantum system S interacting sequentially with independent systems Em, m = 1, 2,... Before interacting, each Em is in a possibly random state, and each interaction is characterized by an interaction time and an interaction operator, both possibly random. We prove that any initial state converges to an asymptotic state almost surely in the ergodic mean, provided the couplings satisfy a mild effectiveness condition. We analyze the macroscopic properties of the asymptotic state and show that it satisfies a second law of thermodynamics. We solve exactly a model in which S and all the Em are spins: we find the exact asymptotic state, in case the interaction time, the temperature, and the excitation energies of the Em vary randomly. We analyze a model in which S is a spin and the Em are thermal fermion baths and obtain the asymptotic state by rigorous perturbation theory, for random interaction times varying slightly around a fixed mean, and for small values of a coupling constant. 1
The study carried in this thesis concerns the dynamics of out-of-equilibrium quantum systems, and more particularly their entanglement properties. Indeed, entanglement became a fundamental concept in modern physics, especially with the development of quantum information. We have in a first part studied the dynamics of a model of bosons on a lattice after the quench of their trapping potential. In the hard-core limit, we developed an hydrodynamical theory which perfectly reproduced the observed behavior. Then, we have looked at the dynamics of two defect spins coupled to an Ising chain. When these defects have been prepared into a separable state, we have established a formula giving the evolution of the reduced density matrix, allowing us to have access to the entanglement create through the coupling to the chain. We considered then the case of two initially entangled defect spins, and we studied the influence of a non-equilibrium environment on the disentanglement properties. Finally, the last part of this thesis is devoted to the study of a system coupled to an environment by means of the repeated interactions process. We studied the relaxation of the system in two different time regimes. For short times, the state is well described by a non-equilibrium-steady-state, in which we highlighted the scaling properties of some observables. For long times, the system reaches an equilibrium steady state made of a product of Bell states
Investigation on foundational aspects of quantum statistical mechanics recently entered a renaissance period due to novel intuitions from quantum information theory and to increasing attention on the dynamical aspects of single quantum systems. In the present contribution a simple but effective theoretical framework is introduced to clarify the connections between a purely mechanical description and the thermodynamic characterization of the equilibrium state of an isolated quantum system. A salient feature of our approach is the very transparent distinction between the statistical aspects and the dynamical aspects in the description of isolated quantum systems. Like in the classical statistical mechanics, the equilibrium distribution of any property is identified on the basis of the time evolution of the considered system. As a consequence equilibrium properties of quantum system appear to depend on the details of the initial state due to the abundance of constants of the motion in the Schrodinger dynamics. On the other hand the study of the probability distributions of some functions, such as the entropy or the equilibrium state of a subsystem, in statistical ensembles of pure states reveals the crucial role of typicality as the bridge between macroscopic thermodynamics and microscopic quantum dynamics. We shall consider two particular ensembles: the random pure state ensemble and the fixed expectation energy ensemble. The relation between the introduced ensembles, the properties of a given isolated system, and the standard quantum statistical description are discussed throughout the presentation. Finally we point out the conditions which should be satisfied by an ensemble in order to get meaningful thermodynamical characterization of an isolated quantum system.