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Physical Review B

Irreversible evolution of many-electron systems coupled to a statistical environment

A. Gliesche, K. Maschke, F. Reuse

Published Jun 4, 2008• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We study the evolution of a many-electron system that is confined in a finite spatial region and coupled to a statistical environment. The latter may be composed of several independent bath subsystems, which are held at some statistical equilibrium. From the master equations describing the evolution of the coarse-grained $N$-particle density matrix, we obtain the equations, which describe the evolution of the $n$-particle density operators ${\overline{D}}^{(n)}$ for $n<N$. These equations are hierarchically coupled through the electron-electron interaction. We show that the hierarchy can be truncated under the assumption that the residual interaction of the electrons in the considered system with the environment introduces a memory loss, which hinders the electronic system to build up more than two-particle correlations. We first consider a weakly excited electronic system, which looses memory but where energy exchange with the statistical environment can be neglected. This is the quantum analog of the classical Boltzmann gas in a box. We derive the master equations, which describe the irreversible evolution of the coarse-grained one-particle density matrix. Based on this result, we show that, in accord with the second law of thermodynamics, the corresponding von Neumann entropy either increases with time or it remains constant. Finally, allowing also for energy exchange with one or more bath subsystems provided, e.g., by phonons or photons, we obtain the corresponding general master equations that describe the evolution of a spatially confined interacting electron gas of metallic density.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.77.245104

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We study the evolution of a many-electron system that is confined in a finite spatial region and coupled to a statistical environment. The latter may be composed of several independent bath subsystems, which are held at some statistical equilibrium. From the master equations describing the evolution of the coarse-grained NNN-particle density matrix, we obtain the equations, which describe the evolution of the nnn-particle density operators D‾(n){\overline{D}}^{(n)}D(n) for n<Nn<Nn<N. These equations are hierarchically coupled through the electron-electron interaction. We show that the hierarchy can be truncated under the assumption that the residual interaction of the electrons in the considered system with the environment introduces a memory loss, which hinders the electronic system to build up more than two-particle correlations. We first consider a weakly excited electronic system, which looses memory but where energy exchange with the statistical environment can be neglected. This is the quantum analog of the classical Boltzmann gas in a box. We derive the master equations, which describe the irreversible evolution of the coarse-grained one-particle density matrix. Based on this result, we show that, in accord with the second law of thermodynamics, the corresponding von Neumann entropy either increases with time or it remains constant. Finally, allowing also for energy exchange with one or more bath subsystems provided, e.g., by phonons or photons, we obtain the corresponding general master equations that describe the evolution of a spatially confined interacting electron gas of metallic density.
Starting from the quantum statistical master equation derived in [1] we show how the connection to the semi-classical Boltzmann equation (SCBE) can be established and how irreversibility is related to the problem of separability of quantum mechanics. Our principle goal is to find a sound theoretical basis for the description of the evolution of an electron gas in the intermediate regime between pure classical behavior and pure quantum behavior. We investigate the evolution of one-particle properties in a weakly interacting N-electron system confined to a finite spatial region in a near-equilibrium situation that is weakly coupled to a statistical environment. The equations for the reduced n-particle density matrices, with n < N are hierarchically coupled through two-particle interactions. In order to elucidate the role of this type of coupling and of the inter-particle correlations generated by the interaction, we examine first the particular situation where energy transfer between the N-electron system and the statistical environment is negligible, but where the system has a finite memory. We then formulate the general master equation that describes the evolution of the coarse grained one-particle density matrix of an interacting confined electron gas including energy transfer with one or more bath subsystems, which is called the quantum Boltzmann equation (QBE). The connection with phase space is established by expressing the one-particle states in terms of the overcomplete basis of coherent states, which are localized in phase space. In this way we obtain the QBE in phase space. After performing an additional coarse-graining procedure in phase space, and assuming that the interaction of the electron gas and the bath subsystems is local in real space, we obtain the semi-classical Boltzmann equation. The validity range of the classical description, which introduces local dynamics in phase space is discussed.
Starting from the quantum-Boltzmann equation derived in a previous paper, we study the irreversible evolution of an electron gas in the one-particle phase space. The connection with phase space is established by expressing one-electron states in terms of the overcomplete and nonorthogonal generating system of coherent states. By using the generalized closure relation for coherent states, as well as the fact that a one-particle operator is completely determined by the ensemble of expectation values for all coherent states, we obtain the master equations in a form that allows us to follow the evolution in phase space. This form of the master equations provides a direct link between the quantum-statistical approach and the semi-classical Boltzmann equation. The latter is obtained after a coarse-graining procedure in the one-particle phase space and by using the fact that the electron-electron interaction, as well as the interactions between the electron gas and the bath subsystems provided by phonons or photons, are local in real space.
We consider an open quantum many-particle system in which there are dissipative processes. The evolution of this system is described by a kinetic equation for the density matrix. From the equation describing a random Markov process in this system, we obtain an equation for the single-particle statistical operator. This equation describes the evolution of a system of identical particles in a mean-field approximation. The equation for interacting particles in thermodynamic equilibrium was obtained. The distribution function of a system of interacting electrons in metals has multivalence in a certain region of wave vectors. Among many solutions one is isotropic. Other solutions have the anisotropy of the electron distribution over the wave vectors. The anisotropy arises as a result of repulsion and attraction between electrons.
We derive the general form of a master equation describing the reduced time evolution of a sequence of subsystems "propagating" in an environment which can be described as a sequence of subenvironments. The interaction between subsystems and subenvironments is described in terms of a collision model, with the irreversible dynamics of the subenvironments between collisions explicitly taken into account. In the weak coupling regime, we show that the collisional model produces a correlated Markovian evolution for the joint density matrix of the multipartite system. The associated Lindblad superoperator contains pairwise terms describing cross correlation between the different subsystems. Such a model can describe a broad range of physical situations, ranging from quantum channels with memory to photon propagation in concatenated quantum optical systems.
We build a framework for the thermodynamics of macroscopic quantum systems. In contrast with approaches requiring access to the full density matrix, our framework relies on a coarse-grained description, based on measurement statistics of a few observables. When these observables commute, the outcomes define classical macrostates whose entropy is quantified by observational entropy, accounting for uncertainty about both the macrostate and the microstate within it. We extend this notion to non-commuting observables forming a subalgebra of the operator space, and use Jaynes' principle to define an algebra-dependent entropy interpolating between von Neumann and observational entropies. Given initial and final measurement sets, connected by internal and/or environment-induced dynamics, we derive a second law for the coarse-grained dynamics. Unlike formulations based on von Neumann entropy, our inequality captures irreversibility from both non-unitary environment-induced dynamics and internal equilibration. It takes the usual form of a positive entropy production when the system is initially at internal equilibrium, while correction terms capture nonequilibrium resources ignored by the coarse-graining. We also derive fluctuation theorems for coarse-grained thermodynamic quantities. Along a quasi-static path of measurement schemes, we identify quantum macroscopic notions of work and heat fulfilling the first and second laws, including an additional work contribution from manipulating the algebra to which the system is confined, through external constraints or quantum measurement backaction. Finally, we apply our framework to examples illustrating the impact of varying the coarse-graining scheme. Our approach unifies macroscopic and stochastic thermodynamics in a genuinely quantum framework, laying the basis for a versatile, experimentally friendly toolbox to analyze complex quantum dynamics.
Recently, a number of authors have begun to study the evolution of quantum fields in the early Universe characterized by a time-dependent density matrix ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}$(t). All of this work is predicated on the assumption that one's ``subsystem'' of interest is in some sense ``decoupled'' from the rest of the Universe, so that ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}$ satisfies a Liouville--von Neumann equation which implies, e.g., an isentropic evolution. Starting from ``first principles,'' i.e., the Schr\"odinger equation for the totality of ``subsystem'' plus surroundings (``bath''), it is shown here how such a picture can be derived as the limiting case of a more complete statistical description. Quite generally, one finds that ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}$ and the ``bath'' density matrix ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{B}$ satisfy coupled nonlinear generalizations of the Liouville--von Neumann equation and evidence a nonisentropic evolution. However, in a Vlasov-type approximation, ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}$ and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{B}$ satisfy instead much simpler bilinear equations which imply an isentropic evolution. And finally, in the limit that the ``back reaction'' of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}$ on ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{B}$ can be neglected in computing the evolution of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{B}$, one recovers a true Liouville--von Neumann equation for the evolution of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}$ in an external field.