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Title: Foundations of statistical mechanics from symmetries of entanglement

Journal Article · · New Journal of Physics
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Envariance—entanglement assisted invariance—is a recently discovered symmetry of composite quantum systems. Here, we show that thermodynamic equilibrium states are fully characterized by their envariance. In particular, the microcanonical equilibrium of a system $${ \mathcal S }$$ with Hamiltonian $${H}_{{ \mathcal S }}$$ is a fully energetically degenerate quantum state envariant under every unitary transformation. A representation of the canonical equilibrium then follows from simply counting degenerate energy states. Finally, our conceptually novel approach is free of mathematically ambiguous notions such as ensemble, randomness, etc., and, while it does not even rely on probability, it helps to understand its role in the quantum world.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; 2015-144057
OSTI ID:
1256377
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1256378; OSTI ID: 1329586
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-21739
Journal Information:
New Journal of Physics, Journal Name: New Journal of Physics Vol. 18 Journal Issue: 6; ISSN 1367-2630
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 14 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (11)

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Probabilities from entanglement, Born’s rule p k = ∣ ψ k ∣ 2 from envariance journal May 2005
Quantum Darwinism journal March 2009
Quantum probabilities from quantum entanglement: experimentally unpacking the Born rule journal May 2016
Compendium of the foundations of classical statistical physics book January 2007
Entanglement and the foundations of statistical mechanics journal October 2006
Canonical Typicality journal February 2006
On LICQ and the uniqueness of Lagrange multipliers journal January 2013
From spooky foundations journal April 2015
Conditional expectation in an operator algebra, I journal January 1954

Cited By (1)

Quantum theory of the classical: quantum jumps, Born’s Rule and objective classical reality via quantum Darwinism journal May 2018

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Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
statistical physics
entanglement
quantum symmetries