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arXiv:1611.07357 · Entropy

Entropy, Topological Theories and Emergent Quantum Mechanics

D. Cabrera, Pedro Fernández de Córdoba, J. M. Isidro, Joan Vázquez Molina

Published Feb 23, 2017• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The classical thermostatics of equilibrium processes is shown to possess a quantum mechanical dual theory with a finite dimensional Hilbert space of quantum states. Specifically, the kernel of a certain Hamiltonian operator becomes the Hilbert space of quasistatic quantum mechanics. The relation of thermostatics to topological field theory is also discussed in the context of the approach of the emergence of quantum theory, where the concept of entropy plays a key role.

DOI
10.3390/e19020087

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The classical thermostatics of equilibrium processes is shown to possess a quantum mechanical dual theory with a finite dimensional Hilbert space of quantum states. Specifically, the kernel of a certain Hamiltonian operator becomes the Hilbert space of quasistatic quantum mechanics. The relation of thermostatics to topological field theory is also discussed in the context of the approach of the emergence of quantum theory, where the concept of entropy plays a key role.
This PhD thesis is submitted as a \emph{compendium} of the articles \cite{NS, holographic, topological}. The following has been adapted from their abstracts. Quantum mechanics has been argued to be a coarse--graining of some underlying deterministic theory. Here we support this view by establishing mappings between non-relativistic quantum mechanics and thermodynamic theories, since the latter are the paradigm of an emergent theory. First, we map certain solutions of the Schroedinger equation to solutions of the irrotational Navier--Stokes equation for viscous fluid flow. Although this is formally a generalization of Madelung's hydrodynamical interpretation, the presence of a viscous term leads to a novel interpretation. As a physical model for the fluid itself we propose the quantum probability fluid. It turns out that the (state--dependent) viscosity of this fluid is proportional to Planck's constant, while the volume density of entropy is proportional to Boltzmann's constant. Stationary states have zero viscosity and a vanishing time rate of entropy density. On the other hand, the nonzero viscosity of nonstationary states provides an information--loss mechanism whereby a deterministic theory (a classical fluid governed by the Navier--Stokes equation) gives rise to an emergent theory (a quantum particle governed by the Schroedinger equation). Then, we present a map of standard quantum mechanics onto classical thermodynamics of irreversible processes. In particular, the propagators of the quantum harmonic oscillator are mapped to the conditional probabilities that solve the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation for Markovian Gaussian processes. While no gravity is present in our construction, our map exhibits features that are reminiscent of the holographic principle of quantum gravity. Finally, the classical thermostatics of equilibrium processes is shown to possess a quantum mechanical dual theory with a finite dimensional Hilbert space of quantum states. Specifically, the kernel of a certain Hamiltonian operator becomes the Hilbert space of quasistatic quantum mechanics. The relation of thermostatics to topological field theory is also discussed in the context of the approach of emergence of quantum theory, where the concept of entropy plays a key role.
Relations between Hamiltonian mechanics and quantum mechanics are studied. It is stressed that classical mechanics possesses all the specific features of quantum theory: operators, complex variables, probabilities (in case of ergodic systems). The Planck constant and the Fock space appear after putting a dynamical system in a thermal bath. For harmonic oscillator in a thermal bath, the probability amplitudes can be identified with the complex valued phase functions f(q+ip)f(q+ip)f(q+ip) describing small deviations from the equilibrium state, when the time of relaxation is large. A chain of such oscillators models both the one-dimensional space (or string), and one-dimensional quantum field theory.
Entropy is a fundamental concept which emerged along with other ideas during the development of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics Landau and Lifshitz (1978); Lieb and Yngvason (1999). Entropy has developed foremost out of phenomenological thermodynamical considerations such as the second law of thermodynamics in which it plays a prominent role Wehrl (1978). With the intense interest in the investigation of the physics of matter at the atomic and subatomic quantum levels, it maywell be askedwhether this concept can emerge out of the study of systems at a more fundamental level. In fact, it may be argued that a correct definition is only possible in the framework of quantum mechanics, whereas in classical mechanics, entropy can only be introduced in a rather limited and artificial way. Entropy relates macroscopic and microscopic aspects of nature, and ultimately determines the behavior of macroscopic systems. It is the intention here to present an introduction to this subject in a readable manner from the quantum point of view. There are many reasons for undertaking this. The intense interest in irreversible thermodynamics Grossing (2008), the statistical mechanics of astrophysical objects Padmanabhan (1990); Pathria (1977), quantum gravity and entropy of black holes Peres & al. (2004), testing quantum mechanics Ballentine (1970) and applications to condensed matter and quantum optics Haroche & al. (2006); Raimond & al. (2001) are just a few areas which are directly or indirectly touched on here. Let us begin by introducing the concept of entropy from the quantummechanical perspective, realizing that the purpose is to focus on quantum mechanics in particular. Quantum mechanics makes a clear distinction between observables and states. Observables such as position and momentum are mathematically described by self-adjoint operators in a Hilbert space. States, which are generally mixed, can be described by a density matrix, which is designated by ρ throughout. This operator ρ is Hermitean, has trace one and yields the expectation value of an observable A in the state ρ through the definition
We establish a rather deep relation between statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics at an imaginary time. For the quantum field theory, this implies a relation between finite temperature quantum field theory in Minkowski space and quantum field theory in Euclidean space with one compact Euclidean time direction. The quantum mechanical language being a proper formulation of statistical physics as a molecular theory is basically the study of quantum equilibrium as well as non-equilibrium systems. A quantum system found in a thermodynamic equilibrium state with an external classical system (thermostat or thermal reservoir) may be characterized by fixed values of thermodynamic parameters of the system, say, for example, temperature T , volume V and number of particles N . In this way the total energy of the thermostat is assumed to be much greater than the energy of the system. The behavior of the quantum system may be assumed to be independent of the nature of the thermostat. The most convenient object of the quantum theory to describe such non-isolated systems is the density matrix since the partition function does not determine any local thermodynamic quantities. It is for this reason that we introduced quantum mechanical and quantum statistical density matrices which are necessary to do the investigation via path integration. This enables us to make a transition to the quasi-classical approximation of quantum statistical mechanics, which, in turn, enables us to evaluate the first quantum correction to the classical Boltzmann distribution function.
In the topos approach to quantum theory, the spectral presheaf plays the role of the state space of a quantum system. We show how a notion of entropy can be defined within the topos formalism using the equivalence between states and measures on the spectral presheaf. We show how this construction unifies Shannon and von Neumann entropy as well as classical and quantum Renyi entropies. The main result is that from the knowledge of the contextual entropy of a quantum state of a finite-dimensional system, one can (mathematically) reconstruct the quantum state, i.e., the density matrix, if the Hilbert space is of dimension 333 or greater. We present an explicit algorithm for this state reconstruction and relate our result to Gleason's theorem.
Quantum systems are viewed as emergent systems from the fundamental degrees of freedom. The laws and rules of quantum mechanics are understood as an effective description, valid for the emergent systems and specially useful to handle probabilistic predictions of observables. After introducing the geometric theory of Hamilton-Randers spaces and reformulating it using Hilbert space theory, a Hilbert space structure is constructed from the Hilbert space formulation of the underlying Hamilton-Randers model and associated with the space of wave functions of quantum mechanical systems. We can prove the emergence of the Born rule from ergodic considerations. A geometric mechanism for a natural spontaneous collapse of the quantum states based on the concentration of measure phenomena as it appears in metric geometry is discussed.We show the existence of stable vacua states for the quantized matter Hamiltonian. Another consequence of the concentration of measure is the emergence of a weak equivalence principle for one of the dynamics of the fundamental degrees of freedom. We suggest that the reduction of the quantum state is driven by a gravitational type interaction. Such interaction appears only in the dynamical domain when localization of quantum observables happens, it must be a classical interaction. We discuss the double slit experiment in the context of the framework proposed, the interference phenomena associated with a quantum system in an external gravitational potential, a mechanism explaining non-quantum locality and also provide an argument in favour of an emergent interpretation of every macroscopic time parameter. Entanglement is partially described in the context of Hamilton-Randers theory and how naturally Bell's inequalities should be violated.