Boltzmann/Gibbs distribution for a two level system interacting with a thermal reservoir does not follow from Schrodinger equation
Abstract
Description
In this work, we consider a 2-state quantum system interacting with a thermal reservoir. By computing the long time limit of the probability for the system to be in the ground state according to the Schrodinger/Von Neumann equation, we reach a contradiction with the prediction of equilibrium statistical mechanics. The most likely explanation is that the Schrodinger equation is incomplete as a description of such systems, because the other assumptions made herein have a wider range of experimental support.