arXiv · 2506.19127
Entropy from scattering in weakly interacting systems
Abstract
Perturbation theory is used to investigate the evolution of the von Neumann entropy of a subsystem of a bipartite quantum system under the action of a unitary matrix, in the limit where that matrix is close to the unit matrix. The physical context for such process would be scattering with weak short-ranged interactions where the unitary matrix is the S matrix. We find surprisingly simple criteria for the initial state and the S matrix that guarantee that the subsystem entropy increases. The class of initial states that meet these criteria are more correlated than simple product states of the subsystems. They form a subclass of the set of all separable states, and they can therefore be assembled by classical processes alone.
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Duncan MacIntyre, Gordon W. Semenoff. 2025-06-23. Entropy from scattering in weakly interacting systems. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.19127
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