Uniform upper bounds (and thermodynamic limit) for the correlation functions of symmetric coulomb-type systems

Uniform upper bounds are proven for the correlation functions in the strictly charge-neutral canonical and grand canonical ensembles for charge-symmetric two-component systems. For the grand canonical ensemble the increase of the correlation functions along the thermodynamic-limit sequence is shown as well, implying the existence of the states. The particles have bounded pair interactions of positive type. Both classical and quantum systems with Boltzmann statistics are considered. Coulomb systems with regularized interactions are included as a special case.     

Foundations of the quantum statistics of systems in equilibrium: A measuretheoretic approach

The fundamental equations of equilibrium quantum statistical mechanics are derived in the context of a measure-theoretic approach to the quantum mechanical ergodic problem. The method employed is an extension, to quantum mechanical systems, of the techniques developed by R. M. Lewis for establishing the foundations of classical statistical mechanics. The existence of a complete set of commuting observables is assumed, but no reference is made a priori to probability or statistical ensembles. Expressions for infinite-time averages in the microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical ensembles are developed which reduce to conventional quantum statistical mechanics for systems in equilibrium when the total energy is the only conserved quantity. No attempt is made to extend the formalism at this time to deal with the difficult problem of the approach to equilibrium.     

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.     

Density-functional theory of inhomogeneous fluids in the canonical ensemble

We present a density-functional approach for dealing with inhomogeneous fluids in the canonical ensemble. A general relation is proposed between the free-energy functionals in the canonical and the grand canonical ensembles. The minimization of the canonical-ensemble free-energy functional gives rise to Euler-Lagrange equations which involve averaged Ornstein-Zernike equations of second and third order. The theory is especially appropriate for systems with a small, fixed number of particles. As an example of application we obtain accurate results for the density profile of a hard-sphere fluid in a closed spherical cavity that contains only a few particles.     

A Canonical Ensemble Approach to the Fermion/Boson Random Point Processes and Its Applications

We introduce the boson and the fermion point processes from the elementary quantum mechanical point of view. That is, we consider quantum statistical mechanics of the canonical ensemble for a fixed number of particles which obey Bose-Einstein, Fermi-Dirac statistics, respectively, in a finite volume. Focusing on the distribution of positions of the particles, we have point processes of the fixed number of points in a bounded domain. By taking the thermodynamic limit such that the particle density converges to a finite value, the boson/fermion processes are obtained. This argument is a realization of the equivalence of ensembles, since resulting processes are considered to describe a grand canonical ensemble of points. Random point processes corresponding to para-particles of order two are discussed as an application of the formulation. Statistics of a system of composite particles at zero temperature are also considered as a model of determinantal random point processes.     

Mesoscopic systems with fixed number of electrons

In this paper, we study the physics of mesoscopic systems with noninteracting electrons of fixed number. From a technical point of view, this means a discussion of the differences between the canonical and the grand canonical ensemble (fixed versus fluctuating number of particles). Such a discussion is not trivial since the grand canonical ensemble is the most convenient basis for the statistics of identical particles and one has to spend labour in order to retrieve the canonical ensemble. Specifically, we are considering ensembles of mesoscopic systems with disorder, either by atomic defects or by fluctuations in their geometric definitions and we discuss various forms of disorder averages.     

Gibbs ensembles in relativistic classical and quantum mechanics

Classical and quantum Gibbs ensembles are constructed for equilibrium statistical mechanics in the framework of an extension to many-body theory of a relativistic mechanics proposed by Stueckelberg. In addition to the usual chemical potential in the grand canonical ensemble, there is a new potential corresponding to the mass degree of freedom of relativistic systems. It is shown that in the nonrelativistic limit the relativistic ensembles we have obtained reduce to the usual ones, and mass fluctuations for the free-particle gas approach the fluctuations in N. The ultrarelativistic limit of the canonical ensemble for the free-particle gas differs from the corresponding limit of the ensemble proposed by Jüttner and Pauli. Due to the mass degree of freedom, the quantum counting of states is different from that of the nonrelativistic theory. If the mass distribution is sufficiently sharp, the thermodynamical effects of this multiplicity will not be large. There may, however, be detectable effects such as a shift in the Fermi level and the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation, and some change in specific heats.     

On the Local Equivalence Between the Canonical and the Microcanonical Ensembles for Quantum Spin Systems

We study a quantum spin system on the d-dimensional hypercubic lattice \(\Lambda \) with \(N=L^d\) sites with periodic boundary conditions. We take an arbitrary translation invariant short-ranged Hamiltonian. For this system, we consider both the canonical ensemble with inverse temperature \(\beta _0\) and the microcanonical ensemble with the corresponding energy \(U_N(\beta _0)\). For an arbitrary self-adjoint operator \(\hat{A}\) whose support is contained in a hypercubic block B inside \(\Lambda \), we prove that the expectation values of \(\hat{A}\) with respect to these two ensembles are close to each other for large N provided that \(\beta _0\) is sufficiently small and the number of sites in B is \(o(N^{1/2})\). This establishes the equivalence of ensembles on the level of local states in a large but finite system. The result is essentially that of Brandao and Cramer (here restricted to the case of the canonical and the microcanonical ensembles), but we prove improved estimates in an elementary manner. We also review and prove standard results on the thermodynamic limits of thermodynamic functions and the equivalence of ensembles in terms of thermodynamic functions. The present paper assumes only elementary knowledge on quantum statistical mechanics and quantum spin systems.     

The Chemical Potential

The definition of the fundamental quantity, the chemical potential, is badly confused in the literature: there are at least three distinct definitions in various books and papers. While they all give the same result in the thermodynamic limit, major differences between them can occur for finite systems, in anomalous cases even for finite systems as large as a cm³. We resolve the situation by arguing that the chemical potential defined as the symbol μ conventionally appearing in the grand canonical density operator is the uniquely correct definition valid for all finite systems, the grand canonical ensemble being the only one of the various ensembles usually discussed (microcanonical, canonical, Gibbs, grand canonical) that is appropriate for statistical thermodynamics, whenever the chemical potential is physically relevant. The zero–temperature limit of this μ was derived by Perdew et al. for finite systems involving electrons, generally allowing for electron–electron interactions; we extend this derivation and, for semiconductors, we also consider the zero–T limit taken after the thermodynamic limit. The enormous finite size corrections (in macroscopic samples, e.g. 1 cm³) for one rather common definition of the c.p., found recently by Shegelski within the standard effective mass model of an ideal intrinsic semiconductor, are discussed. Also, two very–small–system examples are given, including a quantum dot.     

Exact uncertainty approach in quantum mechanics and quantum gravity

The assumption that an ensemble of classical particles is subject to nonclassical momentum fluctuations, with the fluctuation uncertainty fully determined by the position uncertainty, has been shown to lead from the classical equations of motion to the Schrödinger equation. This ‘exact uncertainty’ approach may be generalised to ensembles of gravitational fields, where nonclassical fluctuations are added to the field momentum densities, of a magnitude determined by the uncertainty in the metric tensor components. In this way one obtains the Wheeler-DeWitt equation of quantum gravity, with the added bonus of a uniquely specified operator ordering. No a priori assumptions are required concerning the existence of wave functions, Hilbert spaces, Planck's constant, linear operators, etc. Thus this approach has greater transparency than the usual canonical approach, particularly in regard to the connections between quantum and classical ensembles. Conceptual foundations and advantages are emphasised.     

Embedded random matrix ensembles for complexity and chaos in finite interacting particle systems

Universal properties of simple quantum systems whose classical counter parts are chaotic, are modeled by the classical random matrix ensembles and their interpolations/deformations. However for finite interacting many-particle systems such as atoms, molecules, nuclei and mesoscopic systems (atomic clusters, helium droplets, quantum dots, etc.) for wider range of phenomena, it is essential to include information such as particle number, number of single-particle orbits, lower particle rank of the interaction, etc. These considerations led to resurgence of interest in investigating in detail the so-called embedded random matrix ensembles and their various deformed versions. Besides giving a overview of the basic results of embedded ensembles for the smoothed state densities and transition matrix elements, recent progress in investigating these ensembles with various deformations, for deriving a statistical mechanics (with relationships between quantum chaos, thermalization, phase transitions and Fock space localization, etc.) for isolated finite systems with few particles is briefly discussed. These results constitute new progress in deriving a basis for statistical spectroscopy (introduced and applied in nuclear structure physics and more recently in atomic physics) and its domains of applicability.     

On the meaning of the canonical ensemble

Thermal equilibrium between (quantum) systems is taken to mean stability for the combined system. Necessary and sufficient conditions for such stability are found and used to show that any system in equilibrium with suitably complex second system (heat bath) will be characterized by a canonical ensemble. Thus the notion of temperature is derived directly from that of equilibrium, without, for example, recourse to microcanonical ensembles or information theory. Discussed briefly are the generalization of these results to grand canonical ensembles and their application to the equilibrium between a black hole and the surrounding radiation field.     

Indirect interaction of the localized magnetic moments

The methods of the indirect interaction operator derivation for the quantum particles locally coupled with the quasi-particles of another physical subsystem are reviewed. A variant of the consecutive canonical transformations method which allows one to obtain a nonperturbative solution of the problem is proposed for the systems which do not contain Fermi particles.     

Quantum Quenches with Random Matrix Hamiltonians and Disordered Potentials

We numerically investigate statistical ensembles for the occupations of eigenstates of an isolated quantum system emerging as a result of quantum quenches. The systems investigated are sparse random matrix Hamiltonians and disordered lattices. In the former case, the quench consists of sudden switching‐on the off‐diagonal elements of the Hamiltonian. In the latter case, it is sudden switching‐on of the hopping between adjacent lattice sites. The quench‐induced ensembles are compared with the so‐called “quantum micro‐canonical” (QMC) ensemble describing quantum superpositions with fixed energy expectation values. Our main finding is that quantum quenches with sparse random matrices having one special diagonal element lead to the condensation phenomenon predicted for the QMC ensemble. Away from the QMC condensation regime, the overall agreement with the QMC predictions is only qualitative for both random matrices and disordered lattices but with some cases of a very good quantitative agreement. In the case of disordered lattices, the QMC ensemble can be used to estimate the probability of finding a particle in a localized or delocalized eigenstate.     

The thermodynamic model for nuclear multifragmentation

A great many observables seen in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions can be explained on the basis of statistical equilibrium. Calculations based on statistical equilibrium can be implemented in microcanonical ensemble (energy and number of particles in the system are kept fixed), canonical ensemble (temperature and number of particles are kept fixed) or grand canonical ensemble (fixed temperature and a variable number of particles but with an assigned average). This paper deals with calculations with canonical ensembles. A recursive relation developed recently allows calculations with arbitrary precision for many nuclear problems. Calculations are done to study the nature of phase transition in intermediate energy heavy ion collision, to study the caloric curves for nuclei and to explore the possibility of negative specific heat because of the finiteness of nuclear systems. The model can also be used for detailed calculations of other observables not connected with phase transitions, such as populations of selected isotopes in a heavy ion collision.The model also serves a pedagogical purpose. For the problems at hand, both the canonical and grand canonical solutions are obtainable with arbitrary accuracy hence we can compare the values of observables obtained from the canonical calculations with those from the grand canonical. Sometimes, very interesting discrepancies are found.To illustrate the predictive power of the model, calculated observables are compared with data from the central collisions of Sn isotopes.     

Equivalence of ensembles in quantum lattice systems: States

The general analysis of the equivalence of ensembles in quantum lattice systems, which was undertaken in paper I of this series, is continued.The properties of equilibrium states are considered in a variational sense. It is then shown that there exists a canonical as well as a microcanonical variational formulation of equilibrium both of which are equivalent to the grandcanonical formulation.Equilibrium states are constructed both in the canonical and in the microcanonical formalism by means of suitable limiting procedures.It is shown, in particular, that the invariant equilibrium states for a given energy and density are those for which the maximum of the mean entropy is reached. The mean entropy thus obtained coincides with the microcanonical entropy.     

Symmetries in a Constrained System with a Singular Higher-Order Lagrangian

A simple algorithm to construct the generator of gauge transformation for a constrained canonical system with a singular higher-order Lagrangian in field theories is developed. Based on phase-space generating functional of Green function for such a system, the generalized canonical Ward identities under the non-local transformation have been deduced. For the gauge-invariant system, based on configuration-space generating functional, the generalized Ward identities under the non-local transformation have been also derived.The conservation laws are deduced at the quantum level. The applications of the above results to the gauge invariance massive vector field and non-Abelian Chern–Simons(CS) theories with higher-order derivatives are given, a new form of gauge-ghost proper vertices, and Ward–Takahashi identity under BRS transformation and BRS charge at the quantum level are obtained. In the canonical formulation one does not need to carry out the integration over canonical momenta in phase-space path integral as usually performed.     

The motion of wavelets—An interpretation of the Schrödinger equation

There are stable wavelets which satisfy the Schrödinger equation. The motion of a wavelet is determined by a set of ordinary differential equations. In a certain limit, a wavelet turns out to be the known representation of a classical material point. A de Broglie wave is constructed by superposing similar free wavelets. Conventional energy eigensolutions of the Schrödinger equation can be interpreted as ensembles of wavelets. If the dynamics of wavelets form the quantum mechanical counterpart of Newton's dynamics of particles, then conventional quantum mechanics is the counterpart of Gibbs's mechanics of ensembles. In this way, conventional quantum mechanics is reinterpreted on a deterministic basis. A difficulty of quantum field theory is predictable from this point of view.