{
  "id": "0911.2110",
  "version": "v3",
  "published": "2009-11-11T11:15:30.000Z",
  "updated": "2010-04-27T14:08:07.000Z",
  "title": "Emergence of canonical ensembles from pure quantum states",
  "authors": [
    "Jaeyoon Cho",
    "M. S. Kim"
  ],
  "journal": "Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 170402 (2010)",
  "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.170402",
  "categories": [
    "quant-ph",
    "cond-mat.stat-mech"
  ],
  "abstract": "We consider a system weakly interacting with a bath as a thermodynamic setting to establish a quantum foundation of statistical physics. It is shown that even if the composite system is initially in an arbitrary nonequilibrium pure quantum state, the unitary dynamics of a generic weak interaction almost always drives the subsystem into the canonical ensemble, in the usual sense of typicality. A crucial step is taken by assuming that the matrix elements of the interaction Hamiltonian have random phases, while their amplitudes are left unrestricted.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v3",
      "updated": "2010-04-27T14:08:07.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "subjects": [
      "05.30.-d",
      "03.65.-w"
    ],
    "keywords": [
      "canonical ensemble",
      "arbitrary nonequilibrium pure quantum state",
      "generic weak interaction",
      "unitary dynamics",
      "composite system"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "publisher": "APS",
      "journal": "Physical Review Letters",
      "year": 2010,
      "month": "Apr",
      "volume": 104,
      "number": 17,
      "pages": 170402
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 0,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2010PhRvL.104q0402C"
    }
  }
}