Periodic thermodynamics of isolated quantum systems.
The nature of the behavior of an isolated many-body quantum system periodically driven in time has been an open question since the beginning of quantum mechanics. After an initial transient period, such a system is known to synchronize with the driving; in contrast to the nondriven case, no fundamental principle has been proposed for constructing the resulting nonequilibrium state. Here, we analytically show that, for a class of integrable systems, the relevant ensemble is constructed by maximizing an appropriately defined entropy subject to constraints, which we explicitly identify. This result constitutes a generalization of the concepts of equilibrium statistical mechanics to a class of far-from-equilibrium systems, up to now mainly accessible using ad hoc methods.
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
Achilleas
A
Lazarides
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, 01187 Dresden, Germany and Theoretical Physics Department, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata 700032, India.
Arnab
A
Das
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
Roderich
R
Moessner