TY - JOUR
T1 - Alternatives to eigenstate thermalization
AU - Rigol, Marcos
AU - Srednicki, Mark
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/3/14
Y1 - 2012/3/14
N2 - An isolated quantum many-body system in an initial pure state will come to thermal equilibrium if it satisfies the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH). We consider alternatives to ETH that have been proposed. We first show that von Neumann's quantum ergodic theorem relies on an assumption that is essentially equivalent to ETH. We also investigate whether, following a sudden quench, special classes of pure states can lead to thermal behavior in systems that do not obey ETH, namely, integrable systems. We find examples of this, but only for initial states that obeyed ETH before the quench.
AB - An isolated quantum many-body system in an initial pure state will come to thermal equilibrium if it satisfies the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH). We consider alternatives to ETH that have been proposed. We first show that von Neumann's quantum ergodic theorem relies on an assumption that is essentially equivalent to ETH. We also investigate whether, following a sudden quench, special classes of pure states can lead to thermal behavior in systems that do not obey ETH, namely, integrable systems. We find examples of this, but only for initial states that obeyed ETH before the quench.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84858306795&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84858306795&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.110601
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.110601
M3 - Article
C2 - 22540449
AN - SCOPUS:84858306795
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 108
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 11
M1 - 110601
ER -