The Third Law of Quantum Thermodynamics in the Presence of Anomalous Couplings

The quantum thermodynamic functions of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a heat bath through velocity-dependent coupling are obtained analytically. It is shown that both the free energy and the entropy decay fast with the temperature in relation to that of the usual coupling from. This implies that the velocity-dependent coupling helps to ensure the third law of thermodynamics.     

Ideal Fermi gases in harmonic oscillator potential traps

We study the thermodynamic properties of an ideal gas of fermions in a harmonic oscillator confining potential. The analogy between this problem and the de Haas–van Alphen effect is discussed and used to obtain analytical results for the chemical potential and specific heat in the case of both isotropic and anisotropic potentials. Step-like behaviour in the chemical potential, first noted in numerical studies, is obtained analytically and shown to result in an oscillatory behaviour of the specific heat when the particle number is varied. The origin of these oscillations is that part of the thermodynamic potential is responsible for the de Haas–van Alphen-type effect. At low temperatures we show analytically that there are significant deviations in the specific heat from the expected linear temperature dependence, again as a consequence of the de Haas–van Alphen part of the thermodynamic potential. Results are given for one, two, and three spatial dimensions. In the anisotropic case we show how the specific heat jumps as the ratio of oscillator frequencies varies.     

Approach to the quantum evolution for underdamped, critically damped, and overdamped driven harmonic oscillators using unitary transformation

Exact solution of the Schrödinger equation is derived for underdamped, critically damped, and overdamped harmonic oscillators with a driving force. A unitary operator transforming Hamiltonian into a simple form is introduced. The transformed Hamiltonian, represented in terms of a modified frequency ω, is identical with the Hamiltonian of the standard harmonic oscillator for the underdamped oscillator, with the Hamiltonian of a free particle for the critically damped oscillator, and with the Hamiltonian of a system with a harmonic parabolic potential for the overdamped oscillator. The eigenvalues of underdamped oscillator are discrete while those of the critically damped and the overdamped oscillators are continuous.     

Time Dependence of Joint Entropy of Oscillating Quantum Systems

The time dependent entropy (or Leipnik’s entropy) of harmonic and damped harmonic oscillator systems is studied by using time dependent wave function obtained by the Feynman path integral method. The Leipnik entropy and its envelope change as a function of time, angular frequency and damping factor. Our results for simple harmonic oscillator are in agreement with the literature. However, the joint entropy of damped harmonic oscillator shows remarkable discontinuity with time for certain values of damping factor. The envelope of the joint entropy curve increases with time monotonically. These results show the general properties of the envelope of the joint entropy curve for quantum systems.     

Comparative Effect of an Addition of a Surface Term to Woods-Saxon Potential on Thermodynamics of a Nucleon

In this study, we reveal the difference between Woods-Saxon(WS) and Generalized Symmetric WoodsSaxon(GSWS) potentials in order to describe the physical properties of a nucleon, by means of solving Schr¨odinger equation for the two potentials. The additional term squeezes the WS potential well, which leads an upward shift in the spectrum, resulting in a more realistic picture. The resulting GSWS potential does not merely accommodate extra quasi bound states, but also has modified bound state spectrum. As an application, we apply the formalism to a real problem,an α particle confined in Bohrium-270 nucleus. The thermodynamic functions Helmholtz energy, entropy, internal energy,specific heat of the system are calculated and compared for both wells. The internal energy and the specific heat capacity increase as a result of upward shift in the spectrum. The shift of the Helmholtz free energy is a direct consequence of the shift of the spectrum. The entropy decreases because of a decrement in the number of available states.     

Band structure and thermodynamic potentials

The behavior of different thermodynamic functions of a system of delocalized electrons in a crystal is considered in the single-band strong coupling approximation depending on the degree of energy band filling and temperature. The chemical potential, grand thermodynamic potential, internal energy, free energy, entropy, and heat capacity are numerically calculated. Dependences of these quantities on the electron concentration at high temperatures are investigated. Their limited energy spectrum leads to the special features in the behavior of these quantities in comparison with the free electron gas.     

Quantum damped harmonic oscillator on non-commuting plane

In the present paper we study the quantum damped harmonic oscillator on non-commuting two-dimensional space. We calculate the time evolution operator and we find the exact propagator of the system. We investigate as well the thermodynamic properties of the system using the standard canonical density matrix. We find the statistical distribution function and the partition function. We calculate the specific heat for the limiting case of critical damping, where the frequencies of the system vanish. Finally we study the state of the system when the phase space of the second dimension becomes classical. We find that these systems have some singularities and zeros for low temperatures.     

A hydrodynamic approach to multidimensional dissipation-based Schrödinger models from quantum Fokker-Planck dynamics

In this paper we are concerned with the modeling of quantum dissipation and diffusion effects at the level of the multidimensional Schrödinger equation. Our starting point is the quantum Fokker-Planck master equation describing dissipative interactions (of mass and energy) of the particle ensemble with a thermal bath in thermodynamic equilibrium. When considering its associated hydrodynamic system, which rules the temporal evolution of the local density and the mean fluid-flow velocity, and imposing physically admissible closure relations, these equations can be seen as describing the fluid-mechanical evolution of the macroscopic amplitude and phase of an envelope wavefunction, thus giving rise to a family of dissipative Schrödinger equations of logarithmic type whose steady state and radial dynamics are analyzed. Also, numerical comparison with the exactly solvable models for the free particle and the damped harmonic oscillator is performed.     

Monte Carlo Hamiltonian

We construct an effective Hamiltonian via Monte Carlo from a given action. This Hamiltonian describes physics in the low energy regime. We test it by computing spectrum, wave functions and thermodynamical observables (average energy and specific heat) for the free system and the harmonic oscillator. The method is shown to work also for other local potentials.     

Schwinger action principle via linear quantum canonical transformations

We have applied the Schwinger action principle to general one-dimensional (1D), time-dependent quadratic systems via linear quantum canonical transformations, which allowed us to simplify the problems to be solved by this method. We show that while using a suitable linear canonical transformation, we can considerably simplify the evaluation of the propagator of the studied system to that for a free particle. The efficiency and exactness of this method is verified in the case of the simple harmonic oscillator. This technique enables us to evaluate easily and immediately the propagator in some particular cases such as the damped harmonic oscillator, the harmonic oscillator with a time-dependent frequency, and the harmonic oscillator with time-dependent mass and frequency, and in this way the propagator of the forced damped harmonic oscillator is easily calculated without any approach. PACS 02.30.Xx, 03.65.-w, 03.65.Ca     

Anomalous Dissipative Quantum Harmonic Oscillator

We investigate the low-temperature statistical properties of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a heat bath, where the low-frequency spectrum vanishes. We obtain the exact result of the zero point energy. Due to the low frequency shortage of environmental oscillators＇ spectral density, the coordinate and momentum correlation functions decay as T^-4 arid T^-6 respectively at zero temperature, where T is the correlation time. The low-temperature behavior of the mean energy does not violate the third law of thermodynamics, but differs largely from the Ohmic spectrum case.     

Molecular constants of SiH3C ≡ CH and SiD3C ≡ CH

A normal co-ordinate analysis of silylacetylene and silylacetylene-d ₃ has been carried out following Wilson'sF-G matrix method. The potential energy constants obtained therefrom have been used to evaluate rotational distortion constants and mean square amplitudes of vibration for these molecules. Thermodynamic functions, such as heat content, free energy, entropy heat capacity for the ideal gaseous state at one atmosphere pressure and with the usual rigid rotor harmonic oscillator approximation, have also been calculated for 12 temperatures from 100°K to 1000°K.     

Onsager-Machlup Theory for Nonequilibrium Steady States and Fluctuation Theorems

A generalization of the Onsager-Machlup theory from equilibrium to nonequilibrium steady states and its connection with recent fluctuation theorems are discussed for a dragged particle restricted by a harmonic potential in a heat reservoir. Using a functional integral approach, the probability functional for a path is expressed in terms of a Lagrangian function from which an entropy production rate and dissipation functions are introduced, and nonequilibrium thermodynamic relations like the energy conservation law and the second law of thermodynamics are derived. Using this Lagrangian function we establish two nonequilibrium detailed balance relations, which not only lead to a fluctuation theorem for work but also to one related to energy loss by friction. In addition, we carried out the functional integral for heat explicitly, leading to the extended fluctuation theorem for heat. We also present a simple argument for this extended fluctuation theorem in the long time limit. PACS numbers: 05.70.Ln, 05.40.-a, 05.10.Gg.     

Controlled dynamics of sine-Gordon breather in long Josephson junctions

A possible definition of the specific heat of open quantum systems is based on the reduced partition function of the system. For a free damped quantum particle, it has been found that under certain conditions, this specific heat can become negative at low temperatures. In contrast to the conventional approaches focusing on the system degree of freedom, here we concentrate on the changes induced in the environment when the system is coupled to it. Our analysis is carried out for an Ohmic environment consisting of harmonic oscillators and allows to identify the mechanism by which the specific heat becomes negative. Furthermore, the formal condition for the occurrence of a negative specific heat is given a physical interpretation in terms of the total mass of bath oscillators and the system mass.     

A self-consistent field for the H2 molecule

We investigate the simple harmonic oscillator in a 1D box, and the 2D isotropic harmonic oscillator problem in a circular cavity with perfectly reflecting boundary conditions. The energy spectrum has been calculated as a function of the self-adjoint extension parameter. For sufficiently negative values of the self-adjoint extension parameter, there are bound states localized at the wall of the box or the cavity that resonate with the standard bound states of the simple harmonic oscillator or the isotropic oscillator. A free particle in a circular cavity has been studied for the sake of comparison. This work represents an application of the recent generalization of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation related to the theory of self-adjoint extensions in a finite volume.     

Violation of the zeroth law of thermodynamics in systems with negative specific heat

We show that systems with negative specific heat can violate the zeroth law of thermodynamics. By both numerical simulations and by using exact expressions for free energy and microcanonical entropy, it is shown that if two systems with the same intensive parameters but with negative specific heat are thermally coupled, they undergo a process in which the total entropy increases irreversibly. The final equilibrium is such that two phases appear; that is, the subsystems have different magnetizations and internal energies at temperatures which are equal in both systems, but that can be different from the initial temperature.     

Anisotropic spin-glasses with broken replica symmetry

A simple mechanism of replica symmetry breaking for spin-glass, as suggested by Parisi, has been used to solve the anisotropic spin-glass model of Sherrington and Ghatak. Temperature variation of the correlation parameters and the resulting variations with the temperature of the thermodynamic quantities like internal energy, specific heat and entropy have been evaluated. It is found that the anisotropy has considerable effect on the properties of the spin system. At low temperatures, the specific heat varies asT ². However, the entropy is positive for temperatures above 0.1°K, which is a considerable improvement on the results of Sherrington and Ghatak. The results are expected to be in good agreement with experiment or computer simulation studies near transition temperatures.     

Quantum vibrational partition function in the non-extensive Tsallis framework

The quantum vibrational partition function has been obtained in the Tsallis statistics framework for the entropic index, q, between 1 and 2. The effect of non-extensivity on the population of states and thermodynamic properties have been studied and compared with their corresponding values obtained in the Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) statistics. Our results show that the non-extensive partition function of harmonic oscillator at any temperature is larger than its corresponding values for an extensive system and that their differences increase with temperature and entropic index. Also, the number of accessible states increases with q but, compared to the BG statistics, the occupation number decreases for low energy levels while the population of the higher energy levels increases. The internal energy and heat capacity have also been obtained for the non-extensive harmonic oscillator system. Results indicate that the heat capacity is greater than its corresponding value in the extensive (BG) system at low temperatures but that this trend is reversed at higher temperatures.