[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Olshanii 9/24 ITAMP Colloquium



Wednesday September 24, 2008
4:30 PM  Refreshments served at 4:00 PM
Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics and Harvard University Physics Department Joint Atomic Physics Colloquium
Jefferson 356
Eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and quantum thermodynamics

Maxim Olshanii
University of Massachusetts, Boston

Abstract:One of the open questions in quantum thermodynamics reads: how can linear quantum dynamics provide chaos necessary for thermalization of an isolated quantum system? To this end, we perform an ab initio numerical analysis of a system of hard-core bosons on a lattice and show [1] that the above controversy can be resolved via the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis suggested by Deutsch [2] and Srednicki [3]. According to this hypothesis, in quantum systems thermalization happens in each individual eigenstate of the system separately, but it is hidden initially by coherences between them. In course of the time evolution the thermal properties become revealed through (linear) decoherence that need not to be chaotic.
--
Lisa Bastille ? Administrative Coordinator ? Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ? 60 Garden Street, MS 14 ? Cambridge, MA 02138-1516
? phone: (617) 495-9524 ? fax: (617) 495-5970 ? email: lbastill cfa 
harvard edu