Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2008.11005 · American Journal of Physics

Quantum and thermal fluctuations in the harmonic chain and experimental implications

Kurt Schönhammer

Published Aug 26, 2014• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The nonzero ground-state energy of the quantum mechanical harmonic oscillator implies quantum fluctuations around the minimum of the potential with the mean-square value proportional to Planck's constant. On the other hand, thermal fluctuations occur when the oscillator is coupled to a heat bath. Using quantum statistical mechanics, this paper describes the transition from pure quantum fluctuations at zero temperature to classical thermal fluctuations in the high-temperature limit. It was early pointed out by Peierls that the classical mean-square thermal fluctuations in a harmonic chain—a linear chain of coupled harmonic oscillators—increase linearly with the distance of the masses from the fixed end of the chain, destroying long-range crystalline order. As shown here, the corresponding quantum fluctuations lead to a much slower logarithmic increase with the distance from the end. It is also shown that this behavior implies, for example, the absence of sharp Bragg peaks in x-ray scattering in an infinite chain at zero temperature, which instead shows power-law behavior typical for one-dimensional quantum liquids (called Luttinger liquids).

DOI
10.1119/1.4880096

Related papers

Quantum-mechanical harmonic chain attached to heat baths. I. Equilibrium properties

Ulrich Zürcher, Peter Talkner A

Starting from quantum Langevin equations for operators we study thermal properties of a one-dimensional harmonic chain to whose ends independent heat baths are attached. In this paper, we mainly discuss the thermal equilibrium state that the chain eventually approaches if the heat baths are at equal temperatures. In the classical limit, this state is determined by the Gibbs ensemble of the free chain, whereas in the quantal case, this is only true if the strength of coupling between chain and heat baths is made infinitely small. We find that corrections for finite coupling strength are appreciable only in boundary layers near both ends of the chain. The thickness of the boundary layers depends only on the temperature and not on the damping constant. Outside these boundary layers we find an analogy between thermal properties of the chain and a discrete random walk.

Physical Review A•Sep 1, 1990•37 citations

Exact Time Evolution of a Quantum Harmonic-Oscillator Chain

J. M. Hong

We generalize the classical time evolution problem of a harmonic-oscillator chain with periodic and fixed-end boundary conditions to the quantum mechanical case. It is shown explicitly that the high-temperature limits of our quantum mechanical treatment give the known classical results. We also show that the finite diffusion constant for the periodic chain arises from the zero-frequency normal mode which represents the rotational mode of the periodic chain, and the diffusion constant vanishes as tempperature approaches zero. The zero-frequency normal mode is also responsible for the divergence of the mean square displacement of a tagged oscillator. On the other hand, the absence of the zero-frequency normal mode in a fixed-end chain gives rise to zero diffusion constant and finite mean square displacement. The finiteness of diffusion constant and the divergence of mean square displacement in this model are responsible for the symmetry of the system.

Progress of Theoretical Physics•Aug 1, 1989•1 citation

Ground-state energy fluctuations of a system coupled to a bath

Kirill E. Nagaev, Μ. Büttiker

It is often argued that a small non-degenerate quantum system coupled to a bath has a fixed energy in its ground state since a fluctuation in energy would require an energy supply from the bath. We consider a simple model of a harmonic oscillator (the system) coupled to a linear string and determine the mean-squared energy fluctuations. We also analyze the two-time correlator of the energy and discuss its behavior for a finite string.

arXiv:cond-mat/0108243•Europhysics Letters (EPL)•May 1, 2002•34 citations

Statistical thermodynamics of quantum Brownian motion: Construction of perpetuum mobile of the second kind

Theo M. Nieuwenhuizen, ARMEN E. ALLAHVERDYAN

The Brownian motion of a quantum particle in a harmonic confining potential and coupled to harmonic quantum thermal bath is exactly solvable. Though this system presents at high temperatures a pedagogic example to explain the laws of thermodynamics, it is shown that at low enough temperatures the stationary state is non-Gibbsian due to an entanglement with the bath. In physical terms, this happens when the cloud of bath modes around the particle starts to play a nontrivial role, namely, when the bath temperature T is smaller than the coupling energy. Indeed, equilibrium thermodynamics of the total system, particle plus bath, does not imply standard equilibrium thermodynamics for the particle itself at low T. Various formulations of the second law are found to be invalid at low T. First, the Clausius inequality can be violated, because heat can be extracted from the zero point energy of the cloud of bath modes. Second, when the width of the confining potential is suddenly changed, there occurs a relaxation to equilibrium during which the entropy production is partly negative. In this process the energy put on the particle does not relax monotonically, but oscillates between particle and bath, even in the limit of strong damping. Third, for nonadiabatic changes of system parameters the rate of energy dissipation can be negative, and, out of equilibrium, cyclic processes are possible which extract work from the bath. Conditions are put forward under which perpetuum mobility of the second kind, having one or several work extraction cycles, enter the realm of condensed matter physics. Fourth, it follows that the equivalence between different formulations of the second law (e.g., those by Clausius and Thomson) can be violated at low temperatures. These effects are the consequence of quantum entanglement in the presence of the slightly off-equilibrium nature of the thermal bath, and become important when the characteristic quantum time scale variant Planck's over 2pi /k(B)T is larger than or comparable to other time scales of the system. They show that there is no general consensus between standard thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. The known agreements occur only due to the weak coupling limit, which does not pertain to low temperatures. Experimental setups for testing the effects are discussed.

Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics•Sep 5, 2002•163 citations

Anomalous Dissipative Quantum Harmonic Oscillator

Zhan-Wu Bai

We investigate the low-temperature statistical properties of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a heat bath, where the low-frequency spectrum vanishes. We obtain the exact result of the zero point energy. Due to the low frequency shortage of environmental oscillators' spectral density, the coordinate and momentum correlation functions decay as τ−4 and τ−6 respectively at zero temperature, where τ is the correlation time. The low-temperature behavior of the mean energy does not violate the third law of thermodynamics, but differs largely from the Ohmic spectrum case.

Communications in Theoretical Physics•Jan 1, 2008•2 citations

Exact results for a damped quantum-mechanical harmonic oscillator

Peter S. Riseborough, Peter Hänggi A, Ulrich Weiß

Exact calculations for a quantum oscillator linearly coupled to a thermal reservoir are presented. Explicit results (variances and correlations) for the response and the spontaneous fluctuations are evaluated for two different models of the heat bath; a reservoir with a spectrum which is similar to that of acoustic phonons and another which is analogous to optic phonons. The low-temperature behavior is shown to depend sensitively on the spectral density of the thermal reservoir. The mass and the frequency of the oscillator become renormalized through the coupling to the bath. These renormalizations are intrinsically frequency dependent. Moreover, the commonly used form of Ehrenfest's equation for the dynamics of the linearly damped oscillator is shown to only be a reasonable approximation within certain frequency regimes.

Physical Review A•Jan 1, 1985•131 citations
The nonzero ground-state energy of the quantum mechanical harmonic oscillator implies quantum fluctuations around the minimum of the potential with the mean-square value proportional to Planck's constant. On the other hand, thermal fluctuations occur when the oscillator is coupled to a heat bath. Using quantum statistical mechanics, this paper describes the transition from pure quantum fluctuations at zero temperature to classical thermal fluctuations in the high-temperature limit. It was early pointed out by Peierls that the classical mean-square thermal fluctuations in a harmonic chain—a linear chain of coupled harmonic oscillators—increase linearly with the distance of the masses from the fixed end of the chain, destroying long-range crystalline order. As shown here, the corresponding quantum fluctuations lead to a much slower logarithmic increase with the distance from the end. It is also shown that this behavior implies, for example, the absence of sharp Bragg peaks in x-ray scattering in an infinite chain at zero temperature, which instead shows power-law behavior typical for one-dimensional quantum liquids (called Luttinger liquids).
Starting from quantum Langevin equations for operators we study thermal properties of a one-dimensional harmonic chain to whose ends independent heat baths are attached. In this paper, we mainly discuss the thermal equilibrium state that the chain eventually approaches if the heat baths are at equal temperatures. In the classical limit, this state is determined by the Gibbs ensemble of the free chain, whereas in the quantal case, this is only true if the strength of coupling between chain and heat baths is made infinitely small. We find that corrections for finite coupling strength are appreciable only in boundary layers near both ends of the chain. The thickness of the boundary layers depends only on the temperature and not on the damping constant. Outside these boundary layers we find an analogy between thermal properties of the chain and a discrete random walk.
We generalize the classical time evolution problem of a harmonic-oscillator chain with periodic and fixed-end boundary conditions to the quantum mechanical case. It is shown explicitly that the high-temperature limits of our quantum mechanical treatment give the known classical results. We also show that the finite diffusion constant for the periodic chain arises from the zero-frequency normal mode which represents the rotational mode of the periodic chain, and the diffusion constant vanishes as tempperature approaches zero. The zero-frequency normal mode is also responsible for the divergence of the mean square displacement of a tagged oscillator. On the other hand, the absence of the zero-frequency normal mode in a fixed-end chain gives rise to zero diffusion constant and finite mean square displacement. The finiteness of diffusion constant and the divergence of mean square displacement in this model are responsible for the symmetry of the system.
The Brownian motion of a quantum particle in a harmonic confining potential and coupled to harmonic quantum thermal bath is exactly solvable. Though this system presents at high temperatures a pedagogic example to explain the laws of thermodynamics, it is shown that at low enough temperatures the stationary state is non-Gibbsian due to an entanglement with the bath. In physical terms, this happens when the cloud of bath modes around the particle starts to play a nontrivial role, namely, when the bath temperature T is smaller than the coupling energy. Indeed, equilibrium thermodynamics of the total system, particle plus bath, does not imply standard equilibrium thermodynamics for the particle itself at low T. Various formulations of the second law are found to be invalid at low T. First, the Clausius inequality can be violated, because heat can be extracted from the zero point energy of the cloud of bath modes. Second, when the width of the confining potential is suddenly changed, there occurs a relaxation to equilibrium during which the entropy production is partly negative. In this process the energy put on the particle does not relax monotonically, but oscillates between particle and bath, even in the limit of strong damping. Third, for nonadiabatic changes of system parameters the rate of energy dissipation can be negative, and, out of equilibrium, cyclic processes are possible which extract work from the bath. Conditions are put forward under which perpetuum mobility of the second kind, having one or several work extraction cycles, enter the realm of condensed matter physics. Fourth, it follows that the equivalence between different formulations of the second law (e.g., those by Clausius and Thomson) can be violated at low temperatures. These effects are the consequence of quantum entanglement in the presence of the slightly off-equilibrium nature of the thermal bath, and become important when the characteristic quantum time scale variant Planck's over 2pi /k(B)T is larger than or comparable to other time scales of the system. They show that there is no general consensus between standard thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. The known agreements occur only due to the weak coupling limit, which does not pertain to low temperatures. Experimental setups for testing the effects are discussed.
We investigate the low-temperature statistical properties of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a heat bath, where the low-frequency spectrum vanishes. We obtain the exact result of the zero point energy. Due to the low frequency shortage of environmental oscillators' spectral density, the coordinate and momentum correlation functions decay as τ−4 and τ−6 respectively at zero temperature, where τ is the correlation time. The low-temperature behavior of the mean energy does not violate the third law of thermodynamics, but differs largely from the Ohmic spectrum case.
Exact calculations for a quantum oscillator linearly coupled to a thermal reservoir are presented. Explicit results (variances and correlations) for the response and the spontaneous fluctuations are evaluated for two different models of the heat bath; a reservoir with a spectrum which is similar to that of acoustic phonons and another which is analogous to optic phonons. The low-temperature behavior is shown to depend sensitively on the spectral density of the thermal reservoir. The mass and the frequency of the oscillator become renormalized through the coupling to the bath. These renormalizations are intrinsically frequency dependent. Moreover, the commonly used form of Ehrenfest's equation for the dynamics of the linearly damped oscillator is shown to only be a reasonable approximation within certain frequency regimes.