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Journal of Mathematical Physics

Mathematical problems of irreversible statistical mechanics for quantum systems. I: Analytic continuation of the collision and destruction operators by spectral deformation method

M. Courbage

Published Apr 1, 1982• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study some mathematical problems posed in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and subdynamics theory developed by Prigogine and coworkers. We study in the superspace of the Hilbert–Schmidt operators the solution of the Liouville–von Neumann equation. The application in this frame of the spectral deformation methods yields expression of analytic continuations of a class of matrix elements of the resolvent of the Liouville–von Neumann operator, and this allows the analytic continuation of the collision and destruction operators. However, it is impossible to obtain simultaneously analytic continuation of the creation operator in this frame. The above results will be used in the second part of the article in order to study the pseudo-Markovian equation.

DOI
10.1063/1.525388

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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 A recent critical overview of the “modern view” is in the unpublished thesis of B. C. Bishop of the University of Texas Philosophy Department (Bishop, 1999).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
We study some mathematical problems posed in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and subdynamics theory developed by Prigogine and coworkers. We study in the superspace of the Hilbert–Schmidt operators the solution of the Liouville–von Neumann equation. The application in this frame of the spectral deformation methods yields expression of analytic continuations of a class of matrix elements of the resolvent of the Liouville–von Neumann operator, and this allows the analytic continuation of the collision and destruction operators. However, it is impossible to obtain simultaneously analytic continuation of the creation operator in this frame. The above results will be used in the second part of the article in order to study the pseudo-Markovian equation.
We study in the frame of the superspace of the Hilbert–Schmidt operators the contributions of some complex singularities of the analytic continuation of (Ψ(z)−z)−1 to the diagonal part of the solution of the Liouville–von Neumann equation. Under some conditions, the θ̄ operator of the pseudo-Markovian master equation can be explicitly constructed. It is necessary to specify the diagonal representation and the class of initial conditions having regularity properties. This Hilbertian structure does not allow the construction of a closed subspace which reduces the Liouville–von Neumann operator L, giving an exact irreversible subdynamics; more elaborated mathematical structures are therefore necessary. The above methods are illustrated in the case of the Lee model.
One of us (C.G) has developed a transformation theory in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics that generalizes the usual transformation theory of quantum mechanics in the framework of the resolvent formalism of the Liouville-von Neumann operator extensively used by the Brussels school. Prigogine, George, and Henin have shown that the evolution of a dissipative system can be decomposed into separate subdynamics in orthogonal subspaces. The π subspace, containing all thermodynamics, can be seen as an extension of the subspace of the invariants in the absence of dissipation. In this subspace a suitable contracted description of the system can be given through a dressing operator χ, which has the property that HR = χ−1H0 can be considered as the renormalized energy. A differential equation that determines χ has been proposed by Mandel. It is useful to see, even for a nondissipative system, what relation the transformation theory in the Liouville-von Neumann formalism has to the standard transformations used in quantum mechanics. In this paper we consider a system that can be completely diagonalized by the Bogoliubov transformation. It is shown that in this case the Mandel equation can be solved and that χ−1H0 = HD, where HD is the diagonalized Hamiltonian, obtained by the Bogoliubov transformation.
A one-dimensional quantum gas with \ensuremath{\delta}-function interaction is known to be integrable for any finite number of particles. We show that in the thermodynamic limit invariants of motion are destroyed in conjunction with a class of singular density matrices that appear commonly in both equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The system becomes nonintegrable, due to Poincar\'e resonances. However, the eigenvalue problem of the Liouville--von Neumann operator LH{L}_{H}LH​ may be solved in an extended functional space that contains the singular density matrices. We may in this way describe the approach to equilibrium. This is a simple example of the Liouville space extension of quantum mechanics, due to Prigogine and his co-workers. The fundamental quantity in this formulation is the probability (and not the wave function). We obtain indeed an irreducible complex spectral representation of LH.{L}_{H}.LH​. Irreducible means that the eigenstates of LH{L}_{H}LH​ cannot be implemented by wave functions, and complex means that the eigenvalues are complex numbers, whose imaginary parts determine relaxation times of the system. The dynamical evolution is described by a semigroup. Due to dissipative effects the real part of the eigenvalues is no more a difference of energy levels, as is the case in standard quantum mechanics.
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).