Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/13270
Title: | Thermodynamics of quantum heat bath |
Authors: | Brody, DC Hughston, LP |
Keywords: | Statistical mechanics;Thermodynamics;Large deviations;Quantum mechanics;Condensed matter;Heat bath |
Issue Date: | 2016 |
Publisher: | IOP Publishing |
Citation: | Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General, 49: 42, (2016) |
Abstract: | A model for the thermodynamics of a quantum heat bath is introduced. Under the assumption that the bath molecules have finitely many degrees of freedom and are weakly interacting, we present a general derivation of the equation of state of the bath in the thermodynamic limit. The relation between the temperature and the specific energy of the bath depends on (i) the spectral properties of the molecules, and (ii) the choice of probability measure on the state space of a representative molecule. The results obtained illustrate how the microscopic features of the molecular constituents determine the macroscopic thermodynamic properties of the bath. Our findings can thus be used to compare the merits of different hypotheses for the equilibrium states of quantum systems. Two examples of plausible choices for the probability measure are considered in detail. |
URI: | http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1751-8113/49/42/425302/meta;jsessionid=E909229C9306D96ACA5A56ECD2370413.c3.iopscience.cld.iop.org http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/13270 |
DOI: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/49/42/425302 |
ISSN: | 1751-8113 |
Appears in Collections: | Dept of Mathematics Research Papers |
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