The problem of constructing models for the statistical dynamics of finite-level quantum mechanical systems is considered. The maximum entropy principle formulated by E.T. Jaynes in 1957 and asserting that the entropy of any physical system increases until it attains its maximum value under constraints imposed by other physical laws is applied. In accordance with this principle, the von Neumann entropy is taken for the objective function; a dynamical equation describing the evolution of the density operator in finite-level systems is derived by using the speed gradient principle. In this case, physical constraints are the mass conservation law and the energy conservation law. The stability of the equilibrium points of the system thus obtained is investigated. By using LaSalle’s theorem, it is shown that the density function tends to a Gibbs distribution, under which the entropy attains its maximum. The method is exemplified by analyzing a finite system of identical particles distributed between cells. Results of numerical simulation are presented.
The density matrix of von Neumann can be used to formulate an exact variational principle for quantum statistics which embodies the principle of maximization of entropy. Using the formalism of second quantization, we can write this variational principle for fermions or bosons and can then derive from it an approximate variational procedure which yields the particle states of a system of interacting bosons or fermions as well as the distribution of particles in these states. These equations yield the generalization of the Hartree-Fock equations for nonzero temperature and the corresponding extension to bosons.
A general system composed of many weakly interacting bosons and/or fermions is considered. The object is to develop a procedure for renormalizing the single-particle creation operators, so as to remove the interactions to successively higher orders of perturbation. The basic idea is that creation operators ${{\ensuremath{\theta}}_{i}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}$ must satisfy the Hamiltonian commutator equations $[\mathcal{H},{{\ensuremath{\theta}}_{i}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}]={\ensuremath{\omega}}_{i}{{\ensuremath{\theta}}_{i}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}$, where
H is the Hamiltonian and ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{i}$ are the particle energies. For the many-weakly-interacting-particle system, the zeroth-order boson and fermion creation operators satisfy these equations to zeroth order. It is shown that if the creation operators are renormalized so as to satisfy the Hamiltonian commutator equations to order
m, and also to satisfy the appropriate boson commutators and fermion anticommutators to order
m, then the problem is solved to order
m. In particular, the vectors formed by operating on the ground state with the renormalized creation operators, according to the usual boson and fermion occupation-number representation, are eigenvectors of
H and are orthonormal, all to order
m. A procedure is otained for finding the (
m+1)-order contributions to the particle creation energies, in terms of the
m-order operators. Explicit first-order calculations of these general results are provided for a system of bosons and a system of fermions, and these first-order results are shown to include similar results of Rayleigh-Schr\"odinger perturbation theory, the random-phase approximation, and the method of thermodynamic Green's functions. The problem of anharmonic lattice dynamics is studied in detail, and a method of undetermined coefficients is used to renormalize the phonon creation operators to first order. The phonon energies are calculated to second order, and this calculation shows that the interactions between renormalized phonons cannot be removed in second order. Statistical averages of the phonon energies give the energy shifts and lifetimes which have been calculated previously by various propagator techniques. In addition, the renormalized energies are used to calculate the temperature-dependent part of the Helmholtz free energy correct to second order. As a final example, electron-phonon interactions in a normal metal are studied. The electron and phonon creation operators are renormalized to first order, the particle energies are calculated to second order, and statistical averages of the particle energies recover the usual thermodynamic Green's-function results for energy shifts and lifetimes. These examples show the simplicity by which the renormalization procedure obtains a great amount of detailed information about the single-particle nature of a many-particle system.
Employing quadratic fermionic and bosonic Hamiltonians for collective and internal subsystems with a linear rotating-wave-approximation coupling, we studied the role of heat-bath statistics on the dynamics of the collective motion. The master equations for the collective occupation number derived directly from the quadratic Hamiltonians and within the Non-Markovian Langevin approach are discussed and their solutions are obtained. Because of the different nature of the heat-bath statistics, the path to equilibrium or the relaxation time is affected as shown in the numerical calculations.