Steepest descent path for the microcanonical ensemble-resolution of an ambiguity

The microcanonical entropy plays an essential role in the equilibrium statistical mechanics of gravitating systems. A peculiar feature of many of these systems is the existence of stable thermodynamic equilibrium configurations with negative heat capacities. Different methods have been developed for calculating the microcanonical entropy involving multivariate integrals of constraints and functional integrations. An apparent ambiguity between an approach due to Hawking and Gibbons, based on an entropy definition involving an inverse Laplace transform of the partition function, which they developed to treat quantum systems with gravity, and a different approach developed by Horwitz and Katz defining the entropy as an equal weight sum over a constant energy surface developed originally to treat Newtonian and classical GR systems is shown here to be spurious, at least at the level of quadratic fluctuations of all variables about the extremal solutions. The two approaches involve distinct contours for different orders of integration, each of which is shown to be the appropriate steepest descent path corresponding to the given order of investigation. Up to quadratic fluctuations both methods yield identical results. However, they represent different perturbation expansions for the gravitational modes of freedom with different radii of convergence. The discussion is made in terms of a particular convenient model, a system of point particles interacting via Newtonian forces, confined to a sphere, but results are quite general.     

Quantum corrections to the entropy in a driven quantum Brownian motion model

The quantum Brownian motion model is a typical model in the study of nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics. Entropy is one of the most fundamental physical concepts in thermodynamics.In this work, by solving the quantum Langevin equation, we study the von Neumann entropy of a particle undergoing quantum Brownian motion. We obtain the analytical expression of the time evolution of the Wigner function in terms of the initial Wigner function. The result is applied to the thermodynamic equilibrium initial state, which reproduces its classical counterpart in the high temperature limit. Based on these results, for those initial states having well-defined classical counterparts, we obtain the explicit expression of the quantum corrections to the entropy in the weak coupling limit. Moreover, we find that for the thermodynamic equilibrium initial state, all terms odd in h are exactly zero. Our results bring important insights to the understanding of entropy in open quantum systems.     

Density field theory for a fluid interacting with the Yukawa potential. Role of the ideal entropy

We present a field theory to describe liquids where the field represents the density. In terms of this field, the Hamiltonian contains the ideal entropy and the interaction between the density fields. The approach is illustrated with the Yukawa interaction and presented in the grand canonical ensemble formalism. In this framework, first, we derive a relation specific to the field theory. This relation is equivalent to the ‘equation of motion’ in field theory for interacting quantum particles. Then, focusing on the effect of the fluctuations, we calculate thermodynamic quantities beyond the mean field. The pressure, the density and the compressibility at a given chemical potential in the quadratic approximation and beyond are given. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the importance and the role of the ideal entropy in this type of approach. The density and the compressibility at a given chemical potential are calculated perturbatively in various ways. Whether from their field theoretical definition, or deriving them from one another using the thermodynamical relations or also using the ‘equation of motion’, the results are in all ways of calculation consistent. However, the different calculations require different levels of expansion of the ideal entropy term involving in our case three and four body coupling constants. The consistency is then closely related to the form of the functional of the ideal entropy.     

Mechanics: Non-classical, Non-quantum

A non-classical, non-quantum theory, or NCQ, is any fully consistent theory that differs fundamentally from both the corresponding classical and quantum theories, while exhibiting certain features common to both. Such theories are of interest for two primary reasons. Firstly, NCQs arise prominently in semi-classical approximation schemes. Their formal study may yield improved approximation techniques in the near-classical regime. More importantly for the purposes of this note, it may be possible for NCQs to reproduce quantum results over experimentally tested regimes while having a well defined classical limit, and hence are viable alternative theories. We illustrate an NCQ by considering an explicit class of NCQ mechanics. Here this class will be arrived at via a natural generalization of classical mechanics formulated in terms of a probability density functional.     

Correlation and entanglement of a three-level atom inside a dissipative cavity

We discuss the correlation and entanglement of a three-level atom with a single-mode quantized field in a coherent state inside a phase-damped cavity. We analyze the influence of dissipation on the quantum and classical entropy. It has been shown that the quantum, classical and nonextensive entropy are sensitive to any change in the initial state setting of the atom and the quantized field. The relation between the long lived entanglement and dissipation is observed. On the other hand, a short disentanglement can be generated through special values of the atomic motion parameter.     

Classical and quantum scattering by a Coulomb potential

For relativistic energies the small-angle classical cross section for scattering on a Coulomb potential agrees with the first Born approximation for quantum cross section for scalar particle only in the leading term. The disagreement in other terms can be avoided if the sum of all corrections to the first Born approximation for large enough Coulomb charge contains the classical terms which are independent of that charge. The difference in classical and quantum cross sections may be partly attributed to the fact that the relativistic quantum particle can rush through the field without interaction. We expect that smaller impact parameters and spin facilitate this effect. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Entropic characteristics of photon tomograms

We study the electromagnetic-field tomograms for classical and quantum states. We use the violation of the positivity of entropy for the photon-probability distributions for distinguishing the classical and quantum domains. We show that the photon-probability distribution expressed in terms of optical or symplectic tomograms of the photon quantum state must be a nonnegative function, which yields the nonnegative Shannon entropy. We also show that the optical tomogram of the photon classical state provides the expression for the Shannon entropy, which can be nonpositive.     

Thermodynamics of quantum dissipative many-body systems

We consider quantum nonlinear many-body systems with dissipation described within the Caldeira-Leggett model, i.e., by a nonlocal action in the path integral for the density matrix. Approximate classical-like formulas for thermodynamic quantities are derived for the case of many degrees of freedom, with general kinetic and dissipative quadratic forms. The underlying scheme is the pure-quantum self-consistent harmonic approximation (PQSCHA), equivalent to the variational approach by the Feynman-Jensen inequality with a suitable quadratic nonlocal trial action. A low-coupling approximation permits us to get manageable PQSCHA expressions for quantum thermal averages with a classical Boltzmann factor involving an effective potential and an inner Gaussian average that describes the fluctuations originating from the interplay of quanticity and dissipation. The application of the PQSCHA to a quantum phi(4) chain with Drude-like dissipation shows nontrivial effects of dissipation, depending upon its strength and bandwidth.     

Wave function of the quantum black hole

We show that the Wald Noether-charge entropy is canonically conjugate to the opening angle at the horizon. Using this canonical relation, we extend the Wheeler–DeWitt equation to a Schrödinger equation in the opening angle, following Carlip and Teitelboim. We solve the equation in the semiclassical approximation by using the correspondence principle and find that the solutions are minimal uncertainty wavefunctions with a continuous spectrum for the entropy and therefore also of the area of the black hole horizon. The fact that the opening angle fluctuates away from its classical value of 2π indicates that the quantum black hole is a superposition of horizonless states. The classical geometry with a horizon serves only to evaluate quantum expectation values in the strict classical limit.     

The quantum mechanics of the gauge-invariant O(2) Heisenberg model

The two-dimensional gauge-invariant O(2) Heisenberg (classical X-Y) model is discussed in terms of a Hamiltonian formulation on a one-dimensional spatial lattice with continuous “time”. Particular emphasis is placed on the spectrum of the model and the behaviour of the Wilson loop (which is relevant to the confinement properties). The entire energy spectrum as well as the eigenfunctions of the model are determined in a certain coupling regime by applying a WKB method suitable for periodic potentials.A tight binding (periodic Gaussian) approximation to the quantum Hamiltonian and its wave functional is introduced. The Wilson loop is explicitly calculated in terms of this approximation and is seen to be crucially influenced by the periodicity of the wave functional. The dominant contributions to be Wilson loop correspond to cross sections through the centres of vortices.     

Quantum corrections to ϕ 4 model solutions and applications to Heisenberg chain dynamics

The Heisenberg spin chain is considered in ? ⁴ model approximation. Quantum corrections to classical solutions of the one-dimensional ? ⁴ model within the correspondent physics are evaluated with account of rest d-1 dimensions of a d-dimensional theory. A quantization of the model is considered in terms of spacetime functional integral. The generalized zeta-function formalism is used to renormalize and evaluate the functional integral and quantum corrections to energy in a quasiclassical approximation. The results are applied to appropriate conditions of the spin chain model and its dynamics, for which elementary solutions, energy and the quantum corrections are calculated.     

Quantum microcanonical entropy of a pair of observables

The quantum analogue of the classical theory of the joint microcanonical entropy of a pair of observables is investigated for a system of a large number of identical non-interacting subsystems. It is shown that the quantum joint entropy coincides with the classical joint entropy of an appropriately chosen auxiliary classical system, and known results for classical systems are applied to prove the equivalence of the quantum microcanonical and quantum canonical ensembles.