Ionization of atoms in a thermal field

DOI10.1023/B:JOSS.0000037226.16493.5EzbMATH Open1142.82347arXivmath-ph/0410012MaRDI QIDQ2385641FDOQ2385641

M. Merkli, Jürg Fröhlich, I. M. Sigal

Publication date: 12 October 2007

Published in: Journal of Statistical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We study the stationary states of a quantum mechanical system describing an atom coupled to black-body radiation at positive temperature. The stationary states of the non-interacting system are given by product states, where the particle is in a bound state corresponding to an eigenvalue of the particle Hamiltonian, and the field is in its equilibrium state. We show that if Fermi's Golden Rule predicts that a stationary state disintegrates after coupling to the radiation field then it is unstable, provided the coupling constant is sufficiently small (depending on the temperature). The result is proven by analyzing the spectrum of the thermal Hamiltonian (Liouvillian) of the system within the framework of $W^{*}$-dynamical systems. A key element of our spectral analysis is the positive commutator method.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/math-ph/0410012

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zbMATH Keywords

virial theoremLiouville operatorFermi golden ruleopen quantum system - black-body radiation - CCR algebrapositive commutator methodpositive temperature representation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of functional analysis in quantum physics (46N50) Atomic physics (81V45) Quantum dynamics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82C10) Operator algebra methods applied to problems in quantum theory (81R15)

Cited In (14)

• Stability of equilibria with a condensate
• Stability of Multi-Phase Equilibria
• Mathematical theory of the Wigner-Weisskopf atom
• Another return of ``Return to equilibrium
• The thermalization process of an atom with the thermal radiation field
• Fully coupled Pauli-Fierz systems at zero and positive temperature
• A geometric approach to the Landauer-Büttiker formula
• Return to equilibrium for an anharmonic oscillator coupled to a heat bath
• Status of the fundamental laws of thermodynamics
• On the atomic photoeffect in non-relativistic QED
• Level shift operators for open quantum systems
• Thermal ionization for short-range potentials
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• ATOMIC RADIATIVE TRANSITIONS IN THERMO FIELD DYNAMICS

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