Canonical Typicality

dc.creatorGoldstein, Sheldon
dc.creatorLebowitz, Joel L.
dc.creatorTumulka, Roderich
dc.creatorZanghi, Nino
dc.date2005-11-03
dc.date2006-01-04
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T06:45:50Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T06:45:50Z
dc.descriptionIt is well known that a system, S, weakly coupled to a heat bath, B, is described by the canonical ensemble when the composite, S+B, is described by the microcanonical ensemble corresponding to a suitable energy shell. This is true both for classical distributions on the phase space and for quantum density matrices. Here we show that a much stronger statement holds for quantum systems. Even if the state of the composite corresponds to a single wave function rather than a mixture, the reduced density matrix of the system is canonical, for the overwhelming majority of wave functions in the subspace corresponding to the energy interval encompassed by the microcanonical ensemble. This clarifies, expands and justifies remarks made by Schrödinger in 1952.
dc.description6 pages LaTeX, no figures; v2 minor improvements and additions
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0511091
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0511091
dc.identifierPhys. Rev. Lett. 96, 050403 (2006)
dc.identifierdoi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.050403
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/103156
dc.subjectStatistical Mechanics
dc.subjectQuantum Physics
dc.titleCanonical Typicality
dc.typetext

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