Thermalization and statistical equilibrium in closed systems of interacting Fermi-particles

V. I. Skrypnik

Jani Lukkarinen

Felix M. Izrailev

In this review the problem of statistical description of isolated quantum systems of interacting particles is discussed. Main attention is paid to a recently developed approach which is based on chaotic properties of compound states in the basis of non-interacting particles. In order to demonstrate the most important aspects of this approach, the matrix model of two-body random interaction between Fermi-particles has been used. Different problems have been considered such as the onset of chaos and statistical equilibrium, the relation between the structure of eigenstates and distribution of occupation numbers, the emergence of the Fermi-Dirac distribution in isolated systems of finite number of particles and many others. The application of the approach to dynamical systems with the classical limit is discussed as well.

R. F. Álvarez-Estrada

We consider non-equilibrium open statistical systems, subject to potentials and to external “heat baths” (hb) at thermal equilibrium at temperature T (either with ab initio dissipation or without it). Boltzmann’s classical equilibrium distributions generate, as Gaussian weight functions in momenta, orthogonal polynomials in momenta (the position-independent Hermite polynomialsHn’s). The moments of non-equilibrium classical distributions, implied by the Hn’s, fulfill a hierarchy: for long times, the lowest moment dominates the evolution towards thermal equilibrium, either with dissipation or without it (but under certain approximation). We revisit that hierarchy, whose solution depends on operator continued fractions. We review our generalization of that moment method to classical closed many-particle interacting systems with neither a hb nor ab initio dissipation: with initial states describing thermal equilibrium at T at large distances but non-equilibrium at finite distances, the moment method yields, approximately, irreversible thermalization of the whole system at T, for long times. Generalizations to non-equilibrium quantum interacting systems meet additional difficulties. Three of them are: (i) equilibrium distributions (represented through Wigner functions) are neither Gaussian in momenta nor known in closed form; (ii) they may depend on dissipation; and (iii) the orthogonal polynomials in momenta generated by them depend also on positions. We generalize the moment method, dealing with (i), (ii) and (iii), to some non-equilibrium one-particle quantum interacting systems. Open problems are discussed briefly.

節夫 三沢

Yu. A. Kukharenko, А. А. Повзнер