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

Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja

Algebraic Quantum Statistical Mechanics and Bose-Einstein Condensation

Kalle Matias Koskinen

Published Jan 1, 2018• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

This thesis can be regarded as a light, but thorough, introduction to the algebraic approach to quantum statistical mechanics and a subsequent test of this framework in the form of an application to Bose-Einstein condensates. The success of the algebraic approach to quantum statistical mechanics hinges upon the remarkable properties of special operator algebras known as C^*-algebras. These algebras have unique characterization properties which allows one to readily identify the mathematical counterparts of concepts in physics while at the same time maintaining mathematical rigour and clarity. In the first half of this thesis, we focus on abstract C^*-algebras known as the canonical commutation relation algebras (CCR algebras) which are generated by elements satisfying specific commutation relations. The main result in this section is the proof of a certain kind of algebraic uniqueness of these algebras. The main idea of the proof is to utilise the underlying common structure of any of the CCR algebras and explicitly construct an isomorphism between the generators of these algebras. The construction of this isomorphism involves the use of abstract Fourier analysis on groups and various arguments concerning bounded operators. The second half of the thesis concerns the rigorous set-up of the formation of Bose-Einstein condensation. First, one defines the Gibbs grand canonical equilibrium states, and then we specialize to studying the taking of the thermodynamic limit of these systems in various contexts. The main result of this section involves two main elements. The first is that by fixing the temperature and density of the system while varying its activity and volume, there exists a limiting state corresponding to the taking of the thermodynamic limit. The second element concerns the existence of a critical density after which the limiting state begins to show the physical characteristics of Bose-Einstein condensation. The mathematical issues one faces with Bose-Einstein condensation are mainly related to the unboundedness of the creation and annihilation operators and the definition of the algebra that we are working on. The first issue is relevant to all areas of mathematical physics, and one deals with it in the standard ways. The second issue is more nuanced and is a direct result of the first issue we mentioned. In particular, we would like to define the states on an algebra which contains the operators that we are interested in. The problem is that these operators are unbounded, and, as a result, one must instead use the CCR algebra and show by extension that we can, in fact, also use the unbounded operators in this state.

Related papers

Algebraic Approaches to Bose-Einstein Condensation

Lorenzo Pettinari

Abstract We review two recent applications of operator-algebraic methods to the analysis of homogeneous Bose gases at finite temperature. The first part concerns the semiclassical description of Bose–Einstein condensation in the framework of Weyl $$C^*$$ C ∗ -algebras. In this setting, the semiclassical parameter is naturally linked to the density of the system, and the classical weak KMS condition emerges as the limit of quantum equilibrium states. We show in particular that the condensate structure is preserved in a suitable large-density regime. The second part discusses a joint work with Prof. Jan Dereziński which the Araki–Woods representation is used to formulate a systematic perturbative theory for interacting Bose gases at positive temperature. Within this representation, thermal effects are encoded directly in the field operators, allowing for a transparent implementation of Wick’s theorem and the computation of damping coefficients via the Fermi Golden Rule. The review synthesizes results obtained in two recent works presented at IQSA2025, emphasizing the conceptual role of algebraic methods in connecting semiclassical analysis, equilibrium states, and finite-temperature perturbation theory.

International Journal of Theoretical Physics•Aug 10, 2026•0 citations

On Classical Aspects of Bose–Einstein Condensation

Lorenzo Pettinari

Abstract Berezin and Weyl quantization are renowned procedures for mapping commutative Poisson algebras of observables to their non-commutative, quantum counterparts. The latter is famous for its use on Weyl algebras, while the former is more appropriate for continuous functions decaying at infinity. In this work, we define a variant of the Berezin quantization map, which acts on the classical Weyl algebra $$\mathcal {W}(E,0)$$ W ( E , 0 ) and constitutes a positive strict deformation quantization . This construction provides a natural framework to compare classical and quantum thermal equilibrium states of a Bose gas through the computation of their semi-classical limit. To this end, we first introduce a purely algebraic notion of KMS states for the classical Weyl algebra and establish that, in finite volume, there exists a unique such state, which can be interpreted as the Fourier transform of a Gibbs measure on a Hilbert space. We then construct a new class of classical KMS states that realize representations of the canonical commutation relations with infinite local density. These states arise as the semi-classical high-density limit of the quantum equilibrium states originally studied by Araki and Woods [5]. A key feature of our approach is that it preserves the macroscopic ground-state occupation of the Bose gas in the classical regime. Finally, we demonstrate that the infinite-volume classical states can be obtained as thermodynamic limits of finite-volume Gibbs states.

arXiv:2411.02626•Annales Henri Poincaré•Oct 30, 2025•2 citations

Mathematical aspects of Bose–Einstein condensation in equilibrium and local equilibrium conditions

Luigi Accardi, Carlo Pandiscia

In the paper4 the notion of local KMS condition, introduced in Ref. 3 and extended in Ref. 2, was shown to open new possibilities in the study of the problem of Bose–Einstein Condensation (BEC). In this paper we analyze the general structure of states on the CCR algebra over a pre-Hilbert space that satisfies the local KMS condition with respect to a free Hamiltonian [Formula: see text] and to a given inverse temperature function [Formula: see text]. The replacement of Hilbert space by a pre-Hilbert space allows one to deal with test functions more singular than those usually considered in the theory of distributions (thus allowing e.g., fractal critical surfaces) and is equivalent (in the language of Weyl algebras) to consider a degenerate symplectic form. It is precisely this degeneracy that allows one to introduce in an intrinsic way the notions of [Formula: see text]-critical subspace (resp. [Formula: see text]-critical surface) and of states exhibiting BEC, independently of infinite volume limits and of boundary conditions. We prove that the covariance of any local KMS state is uniquely determined by the pair [Formula: see text], through a nonlinear extension of the Planck factor. For a large class of such states (including all known examples) the covariance splits into a sum of two mutually singular terms: one corresponding to a regular state, the other one with support on a critical surface (or more generally a critical subspace) uniquely determined by [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. In particular we prove that, if such a state is gauge invariant Gaussian (quasi-free), then the [Formula: see text]-equilibrium condition uniquely determines the regular part of the state, while the singular part is arbitrary.

Infinite Dimensional Analysis Quantum Probability and Related Topics•Dec 1, 2017•0 citations

A Note on the Resolvent Algebra and Functional Integral Approach to the Free Bose Einstein Condensation

Yoshitsugu Sekine

We present a systematic description of the structure of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in the free Bose gas from the viewpoint of the correspondence between the operator-algebraic formulation based on the resolvent algebra and the functional integral representation. By clarifying the representation-theoretic structure of finite-temperature BEC states and rigorously analyzing the correspondence between their direct integral decomposition and the ergodic decomposition of the associated probability measures, we provide a framework in which general features of phase transitions-such as the emergence of order parameters, the decomposition of states, and clustering properties-are explicitly described using BEC in the free Bose gas as a concrete example. Furthermore, we construct in detail the correspondence between the decomposition of measures in the functional integral approach and that of operator-algebraic representations, thereby establishing the equivalence between the probabilistic and algebraic aspects, and providing a guiding principle for isolating the essential structures by disentangling the additional mathematical complications arising from the treatment of infrared singularities in interacting systems. These results lay a foundation for the rigorous analysis of phase transitions in non-relativistic constructive quantum field theory and quantum statistical mechanics, and serve as a starting point for extensions to interacting models.

arXiv:2604.01424•Apr 1, 2026•0 citations

Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Properties of Dilute Bose Gases

Oldenburg, Jakob Felix

Quantum systems consisting of many particles are both interesting from the physics and the mathematics perspective. One aspect that makes them fascinating from the physics point of view is that they can exhibit quantum effects on macroscopic scales such as Bose-Einstein condensation. This phenomenon, first predicted 100 years ago by Bose [19] and Einstein [44], occurs when a dilute gas of bosons is cooled down to very low temperatures. Below a certain critical temperature a condensate forms, meaning that a macroscopic fraction of the particles is in the same one-particle state, and thus, quantum phenomena become relevant on length scales much larger than the individual atom. The occurrence of Bose-Einstein condensation is also related to superfluidity as suggested in [88]. Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved experimentally independently by the groups of Cornell and Wieman [3] and Ketterle [40] earning them a Nobel prize in 2001. While Bose and Einstein analyzed theoretically the non-interacting gas, an effective theory describing weakly interacting Bose gases was proposed by Bogoliubov in 1947 with the goal of explaining the occurrence of superfluidity in liquid helium [18]. Using assumptions such as that condensation indeed occurs, his theory yields predictions for the low-energy states of the system. Seen from the mathematics perspective, describing the Bose gas is an interesting challenge due to the strong correlations between particles introduced by the interaction making this case much harder to study than the non-interacting one. In particular, a proof that Bose-Einstein condensation occurs in the thermodynamic limit for continuous systems is still out of reach. However, there has been a lot of work regarding the rigorous analysis of bosonic systems in various relevant regimes. This thesis contains three new contributions establishing rigorous results on bosonic systems in different, physically relevant settings. It is based on the articles [37, 27, 31]. The first result concerns the time-evolution of initially trapped Bose gases in the ultra-dilute Gross-Pitaevskii regime. Under some assumptions on the initial data satisfied in particular by a class of states that are expected to approximate the ground state in a trap, we derive a quasi-free approximation that is close to the true solution in $L^2$-norm. In particular, we show that this approximate wave function is described in terms of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-particle state following the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation together with pair excitations with respect to this condensate. As a corollary, we establish a central limit theorem for bounded one-particle observables. The second result is a simple proof of Bose-Einstein condensation for interacting, ultra-dilute gases. More specifically, we consider scalings interpolating between the Gross-Pitaevskii regime and the thermodynamic limit. While condensation had been shown to hold in these regimes before, the advantage of the method used here is its simplicity. Lastly, the third result establishes an upper bound on the ground state energy of a dilute Bose gas in the thermodynamic limit. It captures rigorously the third order correction to the energy per unit volume for sufficiently low densities as predicted in the physics literature first by Wu and subsequently others. $\textit{Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01}$

•Dec 9, 2025•0 citations

Entanglement and Information in Algebraic Quantum Theories

Giovanni Valente

The algebraic approach to physical theories provides a general framework encompassing both classical and quantum mechanics. Accordingly, by looking at the behaviour of the relevant algebras of observables one can investigate structural and conceptual differences between the theories. Interesting foundational questions can be formulated algebraically and their answers are then given in a mathematically compelling way. My dissertation focuses on some philosophical issues concerning entanglement and quantum information as they arise in the algebraic. These two concepts are connected in that one can exploit the non-local character of quantum theory to construct protocols of information theory which are not realized in the classical world. I first introduce the basic concepts of the algebraic formalism, by reviewing von Neumann's work on the mathematical foundations of quantum theories. After presenting the reasons why von Neumann abandoned the standard Hilbert space formulation in favour of the algebraic approach, I show how his axiomatic program remained a mathematical "utopia" in mathematical physics. The Bayesian interpretation of quantum mechanics is grounded in information-theoretical considerations. I take on some specific problems concerning the extension of Bayesian statistical inference in infinite dimensional Hilbert space. I demonstrate that the failure of a stability condition, formulated as a rationality constraint for classical Bayesian conditional probabilities, does not undermine the Bayesian interpretation of quantum probabilities. I then provide a solution to the problem of Bayesian noncommutative statistical inference in general probability spaces. Furthermore, I propose a derivation of the a priori probability state in quantum mechanics from symmetry considerations. Finally, Algebraic Quantum Field Theory offers a rigorous axiomatization of quantum field theory, namely the synthesis of quantum mechanics and special relativity. In such a framework one can raise the question of whether or not quantum correlations are made stronger by adding relativistic constraints. I argue that entanglement is more robust in the relativistic context than in ordinary quantum theory. In particular, I show how to generalize the claim that entanglement across space-like separated regions of Minkowski spacetime would persist, no matter how one acts locally.

•Jan 1, 2008•1 citation
This thesis can be regarded as a light, but thorough, introduction to the algebraic approach to quantum statistical mechanics and a subsequent test of this framework in the form of an application to Bose-Einstein condensates. The success of the algebraic approach to quantum statistical mechanics hinges upon the remarkable properties of special operator algebras known as C^-algebras. These algebras have unique characterization properties which allows one to readily identify the mathematical counterparts of concepts in physics while at the same time maintaining mathematical rigour and clarity. In the first half of this thesis, we focus on abstract C^-algebras known as the canonical commutation relation algebras (CCR algebras) which are generated by elements satisfying specific commutation relations. The main result in this section is the proof of a certain kind of algebraic uniqueness of these algebras. The main idea of the proof is to utilise the underlying common structure of any of the CCR algebras and explicitly construct an isomorphism between the generators of these algebras. The construction of this isomorphism involves the use of abstract Fourier analysis on groups and various arguments concerning bounded operators. The second half of the thesis concerns the rigorous set-up of the formation of Bose-Einstein condensation. First, one defines the Gibbs grand canonical equilibrium states, and then we specialize to studying the taking of the thermodynamic limit of these systems in various contexts. The main result of this section involves two main elements. The first is that by fixing the temperature and density of the system while varying its activity and volume, there exists a limiting state corresponding to the taking of the thermodynamic limit. The second element concerns the existence of a critical density after which the limiting state begins to show the physical characteristics of Bose-Einstein condensation. The mathematical issues one faces with Bose-Einstein condensation are mainly related to the unboundedness of the creation and annihilation operators and the definition of the algebra that we are working on. The first issue is relevant to all areas of mathematical physics, and one deals with it in the standard ways. The second issue is more nuanced and is a direct result of the first issue we mentioned. In particular, we would like to define the states on an algebra which contains the operators that we are interested in. The problem is that these operators are unbounded, and, as a result, one must instead use the CCR algebra and show by extension that we can, in fact, also use the unbounded operators in this state.
Abstract We review two recent applications of operator-algebraic methods to the analysis of homogeneous Bose gases at finite temperature. The first part concerns the semiclassical description of Bose–Einstein condensation in the framework of Weyl C∗C^*C∗ C ∗ -algebras. In this setting, the semiclassical parameter is naturally linked to the density of the system, and the classical weak KMS condition emerges as the limit of quantum equilibrium states. We show in particular that the condensate structure is preserved in a suitable large-density regime. The second part discusses a joint work with Prof. Jan Dereziński which the Araki–Woods representation is used to formulate a systematic perturbative theory for interacting Bose gases at positive temperature. Within this representation, thermal effects are encoded directly in the field operators, allowing for a transparent implementation of Wick’s theorem and the computation of damping coefficients via the Fermi Golden Rule. The review synthesizes results obtained in two recent works presented at IQSA2025, emphasizing the conceptual role of algebraic methods in connecting semiclassical analysis, equilibrium states, and finite-temperature perturbation theory.
Abstract Berezin and Weyl quantization are renowned procedures for mapping commutative Poisson algebras of observables to their non-commutative, quantum counterparts. The latter is famous for its use on Weyl algebras, while the former is more appropriate for continuous functions decaying at infinity. In this work, we define a variant of the Berezin quantization map, which acts on the classical Weyl algebra W(E,0)\mathcal {W}(E,0)W(E,0) W ( E , 0 ) and constitutes a positive strict deformation quantization . This construction provides a natural framework to compare classical and quantum thermal equilibrium states of a Bose gas through the computation of their semi-classical limit. To this end, we first introduce a purely algebraic notion of KMS states for the classical Weyl algebra and establish that, in finite volume, there exists a unique such state, which can be interpreted as the Fourier transform of a Gibbs measure on a Hilbert space. We then construct a new class of classical KMS states that realize representations of the canonical commutation relations with infinite local density. These states arise as the semi-classical high-density limit of the quantum equilibrium states originally studied by Araki and Woods [5]. A key feature of our approach is that it preserves the macroscopic ground-state occupation of the Bose gas in the classical regime. Finally, we demonstrate that the infinite-volume classical states can be obtained as thermodynamic limits of finite-volume Gibbs states.
In the paper4 the notion of local KMS condition, introduced in Ref. 3 and extended in Ref. 2, was shown to open new possibilities in the study of the problem of Bose–Einstein Condensation (BEC). In this paper we analyze the general structure of states on the CCR algebra over a pre-Hilbert space that satisfies the local KMS condition with respect to a free Hamiltonian [Formula: see text] and to a given inverse temperature function [Formula: see text]. The replacement of Hilbert space by a pre-Hilbert space allows one to deal with test functions more singular than those usually considered in the theory of distributions (thus allowing e.g., fractal critical surfaces) and is equivalent (in the language of Weyl algebras) to consider a degenerate symplectic form. It is precisely this degeneracy that allows one to introduce in an intrinsic way the notions of [Formula: see text]-critical subspace (resp. [Formula: see text]-critical surface) and of states exhibiting BEC, independently of infinite volume limits and of boundary conditions. We prove that the covariance of any local KMS state is uniquely determined by the pair [Formula: see text], through a nonlinear extension of the Planck factor. For a large class of such states (including all known examples) the covariance splits into a sum of two mutually singular terms: one corresponding to a regular state, the other one with support on a critical surface (or more generally a critical subspace) uniquely determined by [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. In particular we prove that, if such a state is gauge invariant Gaussian (quasi-free), then the [Formula: see text]-equilibrium condition uniquely determines the regular part of the state, while the singular part is arbitrary.
We present a systematic description of the structure of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in the free Bose gas from the viewpoint of the correspondence between the operator-algebraic formulation based on the resolvent algebra and the functional integral representation. By clarifying the representation-theoretic structure of finite-temperature BEC states and rigorously analyzing the correspondence between their direct integral decomposition and the ergodic decomposition of the associated probability measures, we provide a framework in which general features of phase transitions-such as the emergence of order parameters, the decomposition of states, and clustering properties-are explicitly described using BEC in the free Bose gas as a concrete example. Furthermore, we construct in detail the correspondence between the decomposition of measures in the functional integral approach and that of operator-algebraic representations, thereby establishing the equivalence between the probabilistic and algebraic aspects, and providing a guiding principle for isolating the essential structures by disentangling the additional mathematical complications arising from the treatment of infrared singularities in interacting systems. These results lay a foundation for the rigorous analysis of phase transitions in non-relativistic constructive quantum field theory and quantum statistical mechanics, and serve as a starting point for extensions to interacting models.
Quantum systems consisting of many particles are both interesting from the physics and the mathematics perspective. One aspect that makes them fascinating from the physics point of view is that they can exhibit quantum effects on macroscopic scales such as Bose-Einstein condensation. This phenomenon, first predicted 100 years ago by Bose [19] and Einstein [44], occurs when a dilute gas of bosons is cooled down to very low temperatures. Below a certain critical temperature a condensate forms, meaning that a macroscopic fraction of the particles is in the same one-particle state, and thus, quantum phenomena become relevant on length scales much larger than the individual atom. The occurrence of Bose-Einstein condensation is also related to superfluidity as suggested in [88]. Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved experimentally independently by the groups of Cornell and Wieman [3] and Ketterle [40] earning them a Nobel prize in 2001. While Bose and Einstein analyzed theoretically the non-interacting gas, an effective theory describing weakly interacting Bose gases was proposed by Bogoliubov in 1947 with the goal of explaining the occurrence of superfluidity in liquid helium [18]. Using assumptions such as that condensation indeed occurs, his theory yields predictions for the low-energy states of the system. Seen from the mathematics perspective, describing the Bose gas is an interesting challenge due to the strong correlations between particles introduced by the interaction making this case much harder to study than the non-interacting one. In particular, a proof that Bose-Einstein condensation occurs in the thermodynamic limit for continuous systems is still out of reach. However, there has been a lot of work regarding the rigorous analysis of bosonic systems in various relevant regimes. This thesis contains three new contributions establishing rigorous results on bosonic systems in different, physically relevant settings. It is based on the articles [37, 27, 31]. The first result concerns the time-evolution of initially trapped Bose gases in the ultra-dilute Gross-Pitaevskii regime. Under some assumptions on the initial data satisfied in particular by a class of states that are expected to approximate the ground state in a trap, we derive a quasi-free approximation that is close to the true solution in L2L^2L2-norm. In particular, we show that this approximate wave function is described in terms of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-particle state following the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation together with pair excitations with respect to this condensate. As a corollary, we establish a central limit theorem for bounded one-particle observables. The second result is a simple proof of Bose-Einstein condensation for interacting, ultra-dilute gases. More specifically, we consider scalings interpolating between the Gross-Pitaevskii regime and the thermodynamic limit. While condensation had been shown to hold in these regimes before, the advantage of the method used here is its simplicity. Lastly, the third result establishes an upper bound on the ground state energy of a dilute Bose gas in the thermodynamic limit. It captures rigorously the third order correction to the energy per unit volume for sufficiently low densities as predicted in the physics literature first by Wu and subsequently others. Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01\textit{Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01}Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01
The algebraic approach to physical theories provides a general framework encompassing both classical and quantum mechanics. Accordingly, by looking at the behaviour of the relevant algebras of observables one can investigate structural and conceptual differences between the theories. Interesting foundational questions can be formulated algebraically and their answers are then given in a mathematically compelling way. My dissertation focuses on some philosophical issues concerning entanglement and quantum information as they arise in the algebraic. These two concepts are connected in that one can exploit the non-local character of quantum theory to construct protocols of information theory which are not realized in the classical world. I first introduce the basic concepts of the algebraic formalism, by reviewing von Neumann's work on the mathematical foundations of quantum theories. After presenting the reasons why von Neumann abandoned the standard Hilbert space formulation in favour of the algebraic approach, I show how his axiomatic program remained a mathematical "utopia" in mathematical physics. The Bayesian interpretation of quantum mechanics is grounded in information-theoretical considerations. I take on some specific problems concerning the extension of Bayesian statistical inference in infinite dimensional Hilbert space. I demonstrate that the failure of a stability condition, formulated as a rationality constraint for classical Bayesian conditional probabilities, does not undermine the Bayesian interpretation of quantum probabilities. I then provide a solution to the problem of Bayesian noncommutative statistical inference in general probability spaces. Furthermore, I propose a derivation of the a priori probability state in quantum mechanics from symmetry considerations. Finally, Algebraic Quantum Field Theory offers a rigorous axiomatization of quantum field theory, namely the synthesis of quantum mechanics and special relativity. In such a framework one can raise the question of whether or not quantum correlations are made stronger by adding relativistic constraints. I argue that entanglement is more robust in the relativistic context than in ordinary quantum theory. In particular, I show how to generalize the claim that entanglement across space-like separated regions of Minkowski spacetime would persist, no matter how one acts locally.