Quantum thermodynamics. Emergence of thermodynamic behavior within composite quantum systems. With foreword by Fritz Haake. (Q819461)

This monograph views thermodynamics as an incomplete description of many freedom quantum systems. It consists of the following four parts: Part I Background, including basics of quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, statistics and brief reviews of pertinent concepts. Part II Quantum approach to thermodynamics, including the program for the foundation of thermodynamics, outline of the present approach, quantum thermodynamic equilibrium, temperature, pressure, sufficient conditions for a thermodynamic behavior, theories of relaxation behavior and the route to equilibrium. Part III Applications and models, including equilibrium properties of model systems, heat condition, quantum thermodynamic machines and summary and conclusion. Part IV Appendices , including hyperspheres, Hilbert space average under microcanonical conditions, Hilbert space averages and variances, power of a function and local temperature conditions for a spin chain. This book has two intentions: to define what precisely thermodynamic behavior should be and to show that a certain class of bipartite quantum mechanical systems demonstrate this thermodynamic behavior, even if treated entirely quantum mechanically, i.e., if its behavior is exclusively described by the Schrödinger equation. Since it seems plausible that this class of systems may contain almost all systems typically considered thermodynamical (and even some more), this book may be viewed as a quantum approach to thermodynamics. The main part of this book (Part II) consists of the definitions of thermodynamic quantities on the basis of the momentary, local, quantum mechanical micro state (density operator) of the considered system, and the demonstration that these quantities, indeed, exhibit, under certain conditions, the claimed behavior (these conditions then define the thermodynamic limit). Part III deals with some more specific problems that require the use of concrete models. Quantum thermodynamic machines might be seen as a direction for future research, a potential alternative to the quantum control by means of fast alternations between unitary and dissipative error correcting steps as proposed for quantum computation.