No Arabic abstract
In this paper, we address the issue of the stability of the thermal equilibrium of large quantum systems with respect to variations of the thermal contact between them. We study the Schrodinger time evolution of a free bosonic field in two coupled one-dimensional cavities after a sudden change of the contact between the cavities. Though the coupling we consider is thermodynamically small, modifying it has a considerable impact on the two-point correlation functions of the system. We find that they do not return to equilibrium but essentially oscillate with a period proportional to the length of the cavities. We compare this coupled cavities system with the perfect gas which is described by similar expressions but behaves very differently.
We compute the thermal conductance between two nanoparticles in contact based on the Molecular Dynamics technique. The contact is generated by letting both particles stick together under van der Waals attractions. The thermal conductance is derived from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem and the time fluctuations of the exchanged power. We show that the conductance is proportional to the atoms involved in the thermal interaction. In the case of silica, the atomic contribution to the thermal conductance is in the range of 0.5 to 3 nW.K-1. This result fits to theoretical predictions based on characteristic times of the temperature fluctuation. The order of magnitude of the contact conductance is 1 mu W.K-1 when the cross section ranges from 1 to 10nm2.
We exploit mappings between quantum and classical systems in order to obtain a class of two-dimensional classical systems with critical properties equivalent to those of the class of one-dimensional quantum systems discussed in a companion paper (J. Hutchinson, J. P. Keating, and F. Mezzadri, arXiv:1503.05732). In particular, we use three approaches: the Trotter-Suzuki mapping; the method of coherent states; and a calculation based on commuting the quantum Hamiltonian with the transfer matrix of a classical system. This enables us to establish universality of certain critical phenomena by extension from the results in our previous article for the classical systems identified.
The statistics of the heat exchanged between two quantum XX spin chains prepared at different temperatures is studied within the assumption of weak coupling. This provides simple formulas for the average heat and its corresponding characteristic function, from which the probability distribu- tion may be computed numerically. These formulas are valid for arbitrary sizes and therefore allow us to analyze the role of the thermodynamic limit in this non-equilibrium setting. It is found that all thermodynamic quantities are extremely sensitive to the quantum phase transition of the XX chain.
We consider the critical behavior at an interface which separates two semi-infinite subsystems belonging to different universality classes, thus having different set of critical exponents, but having a common transition temperature. We solve this problem analytically in the frame of mean-field theory, which is then generalized using phenomenological scaling considerations. A large variety of interface critical behavior is obtained which is checked numerically on the example of two-dimensional q-state Potts models with q=2 to 4. Weak interface couplings are generally irrelevant, resulting in the same critical behavior at the interface as for a free surface. With strong interface couplings, the interface remains ordered at the bulk transition temperature. More interesting is the intermediate situation, the special interface transition, when the critical behavior at the interface involves new critical exponents, which however can be expressed in terms of the bulk and surface exponents of the two subsystems. We discuss also the smooth or discontinuous nature of the order parameter profile.
A Langevin canonical framework for a chiral two--level system coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators is developed within a coupling scheme different to the well known spin-boson model. Thermal equilibrium values are reached at asymptotic times by solving the corresponding set of non--linear coupled equations in a Markovian regime. In particular, phase difference thermal values (or, equivalently, the so--called coherence factor) and heat capacity through energy fluctuations are obtained and discussed in terms of tunneling rates and asymmetries.