Nonthermal equilibrium states of closed bipartite systems.
We investigate a two-level system in resonant contact with a larger environment. The environment typically is in a canonical state with a given temperature initially. Depending on the precise spectral structure of the environment and the type of coupling between both systems, the smaller part may relax to a canonical state with the same temperature as the environment (i.e., thermal relaxation) or to some other quasiequilibrium state (nonthermal relaxation). The type of (quasi)equilibrium state can be related to the distribution of certain properties of the energy eigenvectors of the total system. We examine these distributions for several abstract and concrete (spin environment) Hamiltonian systems; the significant aspect of these distributions can be related to the relative strength of the local and interaction parts of the Hamiltonian.
Institut für Theoretische Physik 1, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. harry.schmidt@itp1.uni-stuttgart.de
Harry
H
Schmidt
Günter
G
Mahler