Entropy is in flux V3.4

DOI10.1007/S10955-017-1766-2MaRDI QIDQ2403249zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 8 September 2017

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.6162

Boltzmann kinetic equation classic entropy definitions entanglement in many-body physics generalized Boltzmann equation H-theorem Landau's kinetic equation local conservation laws local equilibrium local equilibrium non-existence localized kinetic entropy non-equilibrium generalizations quantum correlations quantum transport and flux quasiparticle excitations quasiparticle scattering seeking quantum kinetic entropy

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Boltzmann equations (35Q20) Entropy and other invariants, isomorphism, classification in ergodic theory (37A35) Rarefied gas flows, Boltzmann equation in fluid mechanics (76P05) Quantum coherence, entanglement, quantum correlations (81P40) Many-body theory; quantum Hall effect (81V70) Classical dynamic and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82C05) Quantum dynamics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82C10) Kinetic theory of gases in time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C40) Transport processes in time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C70)

Abstract: The science of thermodynamics was put together in the Nineteenth Century to describe large systems in equilibrium. One part of thermodynamics defines entropy for equilibrium systems and demands an ever-increasing entropy for non-equilibrium ones. However, starting with the work of Ludwig Boltzmann in 1872, and continuing to the present day, various models of non-equilibrium behavior have been put together with the specific aim of generalizing the concept of entropy to non-equilibrium situations. This kind of entropy has been termed {em kinetic entropy} to distinguish it from the thermodynamic variety. Knowledge of kinetic entropy started from Boltzmann's insight about his equation for the time dependence of gaseous systems. In this paper, his result is stated as a definition of kinetic entropy in terms of a local equation for the entropy density. This definition is then applied to Landau's theory of the Fermi liquid thereby giving the kinetic entropy within that theory. Entropy has been defined and used for a wide variety of situations in which a condensed matter system has been allowed to relax for a sufficient period so that the very most rapid fluctuations have been ironed out. One of the broadest applications of non-equilibrium analysis considers quantum degenerate systems using Martin-Schwinger Green's functionscite{MS} as generalized of Wigner functions,

g^{<}

and

g^{>}

. This paper describes once again these how the quantum kinetic equations for these functions give locally defined conservation laws for mass momentum and energy. In local thermodynamic equilibrium, this kinetic theory enables a reasonable local definition of entropy density. However, when the system is outside of local equilibrium, this definition fails. It is speculated that quantum entanglement is the source of this failure.

Review text

The text has not received its final authorization by the author (deceased) and has been published with original referee comments appended. It is in part an essay, in part a regular theoretical physics endeavour (no rigorous mathematics being involved) summarizing the author's personal search for a conceptual unity of grand thermodynamic notions, including entropy, and attempts to give them a meaning for non-equilibrium systems, classical and quantum. By turning back to the original Boltzmann H-theorem, and the kinetic theory of rarified gases, with its local conservation laws (transport equations), the author has isolated the condition of local equilibrium as the necessary one for the existence of a locally defined kinetic entropy and entropy density rate of change (e.g., the flux). This conceptual background is carefully tested in the context of the Landau theory of the Fermi liquid and is related to a number of condensed matter systems like, e.g., superfluids or ordinary metals. In the Landau theory, the kinetic entropy can be calculated and agrees with the thermodynamic entropy in appropriate limits. In contrast to the Boltzmann theory of a dilute gas (composed of particles), Landau's approach refers to a quasiparticle dynamics for some low-temperature fermion systems, that enable the definition of entropy, and the notions of local equilibrium and kinetic entropy. On the other hand it was and still is basically unknown whether the notion of local equilibrium and hence that of the kinetic entropy can be introduced in the fully fledged quantum many-body system. The present paper, in large part, is devoted to the re-analysis of the Martin-Schwinger-Green function method of the year 1959 in the description of non-equilibrium quantum degenerate systems [\textit{P. C. Martin} and \textit{J. Schwinger}, Phys. Rev., II. Ser. 115, 1342--1373 (1959; Zbl 0091.22906)]. The paper describes how quantum kinetic equations for involved generalized Wigner functions give rise to locally defined conservation laws. Under the assumption of the local equilibrium, this kinetic theory enables a reasonable definition of the density of kinetic entropy. It has been verified that this definition fails if the local equilibrium assumption is invalid. In fact no physically acceptable argument has been found that would minimize deviations from local equilibrium in the kinetic equation. The author's conclusion is that in the theory operating with the one-particle Green functions, one cannot construct a useful analogue of the kinetic entropy for a general non-equilibrium quantum system. A hint is left that perhaps accounting for two-particle Green functions (hence quantum correlations) may cure this disease. That points towards modern studies of correlations in quantum systems, as summarized in the general topic of quantum entanglement in condensed matter systems, cf. [\textit{N. Laflorencie}, ``Quantum entanglement in condensed matter systems, Physics Reports 646, 1--59 (2016; \url{doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2016.06.008})].

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Entropy-based theory of thermomagnetic phenomena

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