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

Physical Review A

Minimal irreversible quantum mechanics: Pure-state formalism

Mario Castagnino, Roberto Laura

Published Jul 1, 1997• 55 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is demonstrated that, making minimal changes in ordinary quantum mechanics, a reasonable irreversible quantum mechanics can be obtained. This theory has a more general spectral decomposition, with eigenvectors corresponding to unstable states that vanish when $t\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}.$ These Gamov vectors have zero norm, in such a way that the norm and the energy of the physical states remain constant. The evolution operator has no inverse, showing that we are really dealing with a time-asymmetric theory. Using the Friedrichs model, reasonable physical results are obtained, e.g., the remnant of an unstable decaying state reappears, in the continuous spectrum of the model, with its primitive energy.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.56.108

Related papers

Minimal Irreversible Quantum Mechanics

Mario Castagnino, Laura, Roberto

It is demonstrated that, making minimal changes in ordinary quantum mechanics, a reasonable irreversible quantum mechanics can be obtained. This theory has a more general spectral decompositions, with eigenvectors corresponding to unstable states that vanish when $t \to \infty .$ These ''Gamov vectors'' have zero norm, in such a way that the norm and the energy of the physical states remain constant. The evolution operator has no inverse, showing that we are really dealing with a time-asymmetric theory. Using Friedrichs model reasonable physical results are obtained, e. g. : the remaining of an unstable decaying state reappears, in the continuous spectrum of the model, with its primitive energy.

arXiv:quant-ph/9612041•Dec 17, 1996•8 citations

Minimal irreversible quantum mechanics: The mixed states and the diagonal singularity

Roberto Laura, Mario Castagnino

A formalism for minimal irreversible quantum mechanics is extended from pure states to mixed states. In the latter case the problem of their diagonal singularity is explained and solved. In addition to the pure and mixed states of the usual approach, more general states are obtained. The Friedrichs model is studied. Decoherence is found and decoherence characteristic times are computed.

Physical Review A•Jun 1, 1998•51 citations

Single Subdynamics for the Friedrichs Model

Michel De Haan, Claude D. George

The compatibility of irreversibility, as expressed by the second law of thermodynamics, with ordinary quantum mechanics requires an extension of the latter. Such an extension of a reversible formalism is made possible by the presence of self-energy processes (already found in quantum electrodynamics), which allows for the widening of the dynamics through the introduction of specific additional variables leading to the recognition of such processes. A projection technique modeled on that introduced long ago by the Brussels group defines a subdynamics that is shown to contain the starting formulation in its entirety. (It corresponds to a restricted class of initial conditions, namely the reversible ones.) A new kinetic description is obtained in which, e.g., collision processes for privileged components arise from the original interaction. This method is applied successively to various models, and we focus in this paper on the possible presence of temporal behaviour excluded in ordinary quantum mechanics. Among the differences between this framework and that of ordinary quantum mechanics, the possibility appears for the purely exponential decay of a particle, while ordinary quantum mechanics requires long time tails associated with the finite lower bound in the spectrum of the Hamiltonian.

Progress of Theoretical Physics•Jun 1, 2003•7 citations

Minimal irreversible quantum mechanics. The decay of unstable states

Arbó, Diego G., Castagnino, Mario A., Gaioli, Fabián H. +1 more

Brownian motion is modelled by a harmonic oscillator (Brownian particle) interacting with a continuous set of uncoupled harmonic oscillators. The interaction is linear in the coordinates and the momenta. The model has an analytical solution that is used to study the time evolution of the reduced density operator. It is derived in a closed form, in the one-particle sector of the model. The irreversible behavior of the Brownian particle is described by a reduced density matrix.

•Jan 1, 2000•15 citations

Irreversible evolution of a wave packet in the rigged-Hilbert-space quantum mechanics

Giulia Marcucci, Claudio Conti

It is well known that a state with complex energy cannot be the eigenstate of a self-adjoint operator, such as the Hamiltonian. Resonances, i.e., states with exponentially decaying observables, are not vectors belonging to the conventional Hilbert space. One can describe these resonances in an unusual mathematical formalism based on the so-called rigged Hilbert space (RHS). In the RHS, the states with complex energy are denoted as Gamow vectors (GVs), and they model decay processes. We study the GVs of the reversed harmonic oscillator, and we analytically and numerically investigate the unstable evolution of wave packets. We introduce the background function to study initial data that are not composed only by a summation of GVs, and we analyze different wave packets belonging to specific function spaces. Our work furnishes support for the idea that irreversible wave propagation can be investigated using rigged-Hilbert-space quantum mechanics and provides insight for the experimental investigation of irreversible dynamics.

arXiv:1607.08109•Physical Review A•Nov 29, 2016•21 citations

Quantum statistical mechanics, extended

William C. Schieve, Lawrence Paul Horwitz

Intrinsic theory of irreversibility In connection with the previous chapter on Wigner–Weisskopf, quantum irreversibility, Gamov states and the Lax–Phillips theory of decay, we shall examine the recent program in statistical mechanics carried forward by Ilya Prigogine and his colleagues since his early book in 1962 (Prigogine, 1962). This discussion is somewhat out of the focus of the present book, since the work to be discussed has principally been devoted to isolated quantum systems, not those in interaction with “reservoirs.” In addition, Prigogine's work is very classical in its content. We shall not attempt the task of reviewing the many changes that have taken place between 1962 and the present. Fine texts describing some of this work are those of Balescu (1963, 1975). A recent critical overview of the “modern view” is in the unpublished thesis of B. C. Bishop of the University of Texas Philosophy Department (Bishop, 1999). In many ways this is related to the use of Gel'fand triplets (Gel'fand and Vilenkin, 1968), mentioned in Chapter 17.6, to describe irreversible quantum states, i.e. Gamov states. See Chapter 17, the book of Bohm and Gadella (1989) and also the more recent review article by Bohm and colleagues (Bohm et al. , 1997). The object in statistical mechanics is to extend the range of the Liouville operator (classical and quantum) such that its eigenvalues are complex and intrinsically irreversible. Statistical mechanics has always been focused on many particle systems and the appearance of a continuum spectrum in the thermodynamic limit, already used in many places in this book. In the classical case Antoniou and Tasaki carried out the adaptation of the Gel'fand triplet approach to the Liouville operator, but this is, apparently, not possible quantum mechanically (Antoniou and Tasaki, 1993). Thus, another route must be taken in what Prigogine has termed, for emphasis, “large Poincaré systems” which have a continuum spectrum (Prigogine, 1997).

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Apr 16, 2009•0 citations
It is demonstrated that, making minimal changes in ordinary quantum mechanics, a reasonable irreversible quantum mechanics can be obtained. This theory has a more general spectral decomposition, with eigenvectors corresponding to unstable states that vanish when t\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞.t\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}.t\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞. These Gamov vectors have zero norm, in such a way that the norm and the energy of the physical states remain constant. The evolution operator has no inverse, showing that we are really dealing with a time-asymmetric theory. Using the Friedrichs model, reasonable physical results are obtained, e.g., the remnant of an unstable decaying state reappears, in the continuous spectrum of the model, with its primitive energy.
It is demonstrated that, making minimal changes in ordinary quantum mechanics, a reasonable irreversible quantum mechanics can be obtained. This theory has a more general spectral decompositions, with eigenvectors corresponding to unstable states that vanish when t→∞.t \to \infty .t→∞. These ''Gamov vectors'' have zero norm, in such a way that the norm and the energy of the physical states remain constant. The evolution operator has no inverse, showing that we are really dealing with a time-asymmetric theory. Using Friedrichs model reasonable physical results are obtained, e. g. : the remaining of an unstable decaying state reappears, in the continuous spectrum of the model, with its primitive energy.
The compatibility of irreversibility, as expressed by the second law of thermodynamics, with ordinary quantum mechanics requires an extension of the latter. Such an extension of a reversible formalism is made possible by the presence of self-energy processes (already found in quantum electrodynamics), which allows for the widening of the dynamics through the introduction of specific additional variables leading to the recognition of such processes. A projection technique modeled on that introduced long ago by the Brussels group defines a subdynamics that is shown to contain the starting formulation in its entirety. (It corresponds to a restricted class of initial conditions, namely the reversible ones.) A new kinetic description is obtained in which, e.g., collision processes for privileged components arise from the original interaction. This method is applied successively to various models, and we focus in this paper on the possible presence of temporal behaviour excluded in ordinary quantum mechanics. Among the differences between this framework and that of ordinary quantum mechanics, the possibility appears for the purely exponential decay of a particle, while ordinary quantum mechanics requires long time tails associated with the finite lower bound in the spectrum of the Hamiltonian.
It is well known that a state with complex energy cannot be the eigenstate of a self-adjoint operator, such as the Hamiltonian. Resonances, i.e., states with exponentially decaying observables, are not vectors belonging to the conventional Hilbert space. One can describe these resonances in an unusual mathematical formalism based on the so-called rigged Hilbert space (RHS). In the RHS, the states with complex energy are denoted as Gamow vectors (GVs), and they model decay processes. We study the GVs of the reversed harmonic oscillator, and we analytically and numerically investigate the unstable evolution of wave packets. We introduce the background function to study initial data that are not composed only by a summation of GVs, and we analyze different wave packets belonging to specific function spaces. Our work furnishes support for the idea that irreversible wave propagation can be investigated using rigged-Hilbert-space quantum mechanics and provides insight for the experimental investigation of irreversible dynamics.
Intrinsic theory of irreversibility In connection with the previous chapter on Wigner–Weisskopf, quantum irreversibility, Gamov states and the Lax–Phillips theory of decay, we shall examine the recent program in statistical mechanics carried forward by Ilya Prigogine and his colleagues since his early book in 1962 (Prigogine, 1962). This discussion is somewhat out of the focus of the present book, since the work to be discussed has principally been devoted to isolated quantum systems, not those in interaction with “reservoirs.” In addition, Prigogine's work is very classical in its content. We shall not attempt the task of reviewing the many changes that have taken place between 1962 and the present. Fine texts describing some of this work are those of Balescu (1963, 1975). A recent critical overview of the “modern view” is in the unpublished thesis of B. C. Bishop of the University of Texas Philosophy Department (Bishop, 1999). In many ways this is related to the use of Gel'fand triplets (Gel'fand and Vilenkin, 1968), mentioned in Chapter 17.6, to describe irreversible quantum states, i.e. Gamov states. See Chapter 17, the book of Bohm and Gadella (1989) and also the more recent review article by Bohm and colleagues (Bohm et al. , 1997). The object in statistical mechanics is to extend the range of the Liouville operator (classical and quantum) such that its eigenvalues are complex and intrinsically irreversible. Statistical mechanics has always been focused on many particle systems and the appearance of a continuum spectrum in the thermodynamic limit, already used in many places in this book. In the classical case Antoniou and Tasaki carried out the adaptation of the Gel'fand triplet approach to the Liouville operator, but this is, apparently, not possible quantum mechanically (Antoniou and Tasaki, 1993). Thus, another route must be taken in what Prigogine has termed, for emphasis, “large Poincaré systems” which have a continuum spectrum (Prigogine, 1997).