Microscopic origin of thermodynamic entropy in isolated systems

J. M. Deutsch, Haibin Li, and Auditya Sharma
Phys. Rev. E 87, 042135 – Published 30 April 2013
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Abstract

The quantum entropy is usually defined using von Neumann's formula, which measures lack of information and vanishes for pure states. In contrast, we obtain a formula for the entropy of a pure state as it is measured from thermodynamic experiments, solely from the self-entanglement of the wave function, and find strong numerical evidence that the two are in agreement for nonintegrable systems, both for energy eigenstates and for states that are obtained at long times under the evolution of more general initial conditions. This is an extension of Boltzmann's hypothesis for classical systems, relating microscopic motion to thermodynamics.

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  • Received 5 March 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.042135

©2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

J. M. Deutsch1, Haibin Li1,2, and Auditya Sharma3

  • 1Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
  • 2Department of Applied Physics, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, P. R. China
  • 3International Institute of Physics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

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Issue

Vol. 87, Iss. 4 — April 2013

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