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THE MASTER EQUATION FOR THE INTERFERENCE TERM AND THE APPROACH TO EQUILIBRIUM IN QUANTUM MANY-BODY SYSTEMS

A. Janner

Published Jan 1, 1961• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Techniques previously developed for deriving a master equation to general order in the perturbation for the transition probability are now applied to the interference term. A master equation to general order for the partial interference term is obtained, which, in the limit of small perturbation, leads to a Pauli master equation for the interference term itself. The long-time behavior of the interference term is discussed. By means of these results, a complete master equation can be written without any random phase assumption. The ergodic behavior of a quantum many-body system is demonstrated for a large class of physical quantities, and the approach to microcanonical equilibrium is discussed. (auth)

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Techniques previously developed for deriving a master equation to general order in the perturbation for the transition probability are now applied to the interference term. A master equation to general order for the partial interference term is obtained, which, in the limit of small perturbation, leads to a Pauli master equation for the interference term itself. The long-time behavior of the interference term is discussed. By means of these results, a complete master equation can be written without any random phase assumption. The ergodic behavior of a quantum many-body system is demonstrated for a large class of physical quantities, and the approach to microcanonical equilibrium is discussed. (auth)
The Pauli master equation describes the statistical equilibration of a closed quantum system. Simplifying and generalizing an approach developed in two previous papers, we present a derivation of that equation using concepts developed in quantum chaos and random-matrix theory. We assume that the system consists of subsystems with strong internal mixing. We can then model the system as an ensemble of random matrices. Equilibration results from averaging over the ensemble. The direction of the arrow of time is determined by an (ever-so-small) coupling to the outside world. The master equation holds for sufficiently large times if the average level densities in all subsystems are sufficiently smooth. These conditions are quantified in the text, and leading-order correction terms are given.
We discuss the derivation of the Pauli master equation, based on a repeated random phase assumption, and of van Hove's result, based on an initial random phase assumption. For the former we indicate a derivation which is closer to the general approach of stochastic theory than Pauli's original method. For the van Hove result, we show that the diagonal and nondiagonal parts of the evolution operator of the Schrödinger or von Neumann equation are readily obtained by Zwanzig's projection operator method.
A classical statistical probability amplitude is introduced whose square modulus is the distribution function. This enables the analogy between classical statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics to be completed. The analogy is developed until quantum statistical derivations can be used in classical statistical mechanics. Two master equations are found: the classical equivalent of the Pauli Master Equation, and a generally valid master equation. Well-known classical equations are deduced from these in a special representation. Interference terms are found and discussed.
A perturbative quantum master equation is derived for a system interacting with its environment, which is more general than the ones derived before. Our master equation takes into account the effect of the energy exchanges between the system and the environment and the conservation of energy in the finite total system. This master equation describes relaxation mechanisms in isolated nanoscopic quantum systems. In its most general form, this equation is non-Markovian and a Markovian version of it rules the long-time relaxation. We show that our equation reduces to the Redfield equation in the limit where the energy of the system does not affect the density of state of its environment. This master equation and the Redfield one are applied to a spin-environment model defined in terms of random matrices and compared with the solutions of the exact von Neumann equation. The comparison proves the necessity to allow energy exchange between the subsystem and the environment in order to correctly describe the relaxation in an isolated nanoscopic total system.
An exact generalized master equation is derived for a large quantum-mechanical system in the form of a power series in the density. This derivation is a quantum-mechanical generalization of a previous work by the author for classical systems. The quantum equation can be viewed as a time-dependent analog of the virial expansion of the quantum-mechanical partition function---for both degenerate systems (Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac statistics) and nondegenerate systems. The coefficients of the series, in the quantum master equation, are explicitly given in terms of operators (Green functions) which are determined by the dynamics of isolated groups of particles and are convergent functions of the interaction potential. Equations are obtained for the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix as well as for the diagonal elements. The equation for the diagonal elements is shown to reduce to a Markoffian master equation for asymptotically long times, and an explicit expression is obtained for the "scattering" operator of this asymptotic equation.