title: Logarithmic oscillators: ideal Hamiltonian thermostats.
abstract: A logarithmic oscillator (in short, log-oscillator) behaves like an ideal thermostat because of its infinite heat capacity: When it weakly couples to another system, time averages of the system observables agree with ensemble averages from a Gibbs distribution with a temperature T that is given by the strength of the logarithmic potential. The resulting equations of motion are Hamiltonian and may be implemented not only in a computer but also with real-world experiments, e.g., with cold atoms.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, University of Augsburg, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-86135 Augsburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Campisi
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Talkner
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hänggi