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Juerg Froehlich

Publications and source records attributed to Juerg Froehlich.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Mach-Zehnder interferometry of fractional quantum Hall edge states

We propose direct experimental tests of the effective models of fractional quantum Hall edge states. We first recall a classification of effective models based on the requirement of anomaly cancellation and illustrate the general classification with the example of a quantum Hall fluid at filling factor 2/3. We show that, in this example, it is impossible to describe the edge states with only one chiral channel and that there are several inequivalent models of the edge states with two fields. We focus our attention on the four simplest models of the edge states of a fluid with filling factor 2/3 and evaluate charges and scaling dimensions of quasi-particles. We study transport through an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer and show that scaling properties of the Fourier components of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the current provide information about the electric charges and scaling dimensions of quasi-particles. Thus Mach-Zehnder interferometers can be used to discriminate between different effective models of fluids corresponding to the same filling factor. They therefore can be used to test fundamental postulates underlying the low-energy effective theory of edge states. An important ingredient of our analysis is the tunneling Hamiltonian of quasi-particles, the form of which is discussed in detail.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Infraparticle Scattering States in Non-Relativistic QED: II. Mass Shell Properties

We study the infrared problem in the usual model of QED with non-relativistic matter. We prove spectral and regularity properties characterizing the mass shell of an electron and one-electron infraparticle states of this model. Our results are crucial for the construction of infraparticle scattering states, which are treated in a separate paper.

math-ph↗

Spectral Renormalization Group

The operator-theoretic renormalization group (RG) methods are powerful analytic tools to explore spectral properties of field-theoretical models such as quantum electrodynamics (QED) with non-relativistic matter. In this paper these methods are extended and simplified. In a companion paper, our variant of operator-theoretic RG methods is applied to establishing the limiting absorption principle in non-relativistic QED near the ground state energy

math-ph↗

Spin - or, actually: Spin and Quantum Statistics

The history of the discovery of electron spin and the Pauli principle and the mathematics of spin and quantum statistics are reviewed. Pauli's theory of the spinning electron and some of its many applications in mathematics and physics are considered in more detail. The role of the fact that the tree-level gyromagnetic factor of the electron has the value g = 2 in an analysis of stability (and instability) of matter in arbitrary external magnetic fields is highlighted. Radiative corrections and precision measurements of g are reviewed. The general connection between spin and statistics, the CPT theorem and the theory of braid statistics are described.

math-ph↗

Status of the Fundamental Laws of Thermodynamics

We describe recent progress towards deriving the Fundamental Laws of thermodynamics (the 0th, 1st and 2nd Law) from nonequilibrium quantum statistical mechanics in simple, yet physically relevant models. Along the way, we clarify some basic thermodynamic notions and discuss various reversible and irreversible thermodynamic processes from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanics.

math-ph↗

Adiabatic theorems for quantum resonances

We study the adiabatic time evolution of quantum resonances over time scales which are small compared to the lifetime of the resonances. We consider three typical examples of resonances: The first one is that of shape resonances corresponding, for example, to the state of a quantum-mechanical particle in a potential well whose shape changes over time scales small compared to the escape time of the particle from the well. Our approach to studying the adiabatic evolution of shape resonances is based on a precise form of the time-energy uncertainty relation and the usual adiabatic theorem in quantum mechanics. The second example concerns resonances that appear as isolated complex eigenvalues of spectrally deformed Hamiltonians, such as those encountered in the N-body Stark effect. Our approach to study such resonances is based on the Balslev-Combes theory of dilatation-analytic Hamiltonians and an adiabatic theorem for nonnormal generators of time evolution. Our third example concerns resonances arising from eigenvalues embedded in the continuous spectrum when a perturbation is turned on, such as those encountered when a small system is coupled to an infinitely extended, dispersive medium. Our approach to this class of examples is based on an extension of adiabatic theorems without a spectral gap condition. We finally comment on resonance crossings, which can be studied using the last approach.

math-ph↗

Dynamical Collapse of White Dwarfs in Hartree- and Hartree-Fock Theory

We study finite-time blow-up for pseudo-relativistic Hartree- and Hartree-Fock equations, which are model equations for the dynamical evolution of white dwarfs. In particular, we prove that radially symmetric initial configurations with negative energy lead to finite-time blow-up of solutions. Furthermore, we derive a mass concentration estimate for radial blow-up solutions. Both results are mathematically rigorous and are in accordance with Chandrasekhar's physical theory of white dwarfs, stating that stellar configurations beyond a certain limiting mass lead to ``gravitational collapse'' of these objects. Apart from studying blow-up, we also prove local well-posedness of the initial-value problem for the Hartree- and Hartree-Fock equations underlying our analysis, as well as global-in-time existence of solutions with sufficiently small initial data, corresponding to white dwarfs whose stellar mass is below the Chandrasekhar limit.

math-ph↗

Effective Dynamics for Boson Stars

We study solutions close to solitary waves of the pseudo-relativistic Hartree equation describing boson stars under the influence of an external gravitational field. In particular, we analyze the long-time effective dynamics of such solutions. In essence, we establish a (long-time) stability result for solutions describing boson stars that move under the influence of an external gravitational field.

math-ph↗

Cyclic thermodynamic processes and entropy production

We study the time evolution of a periodically driven quantum-mechanical system coupled to several reserviors of free fermions at different temperatures. This is a paradigm of a cyclic thermodynamic process. We introduce the notion of a Floquet Liouvillean as the generator of the dynamics on an extended Hilbert space. We show that the time-periodic state to which the true state of the coupled system converges after very many periods corresponds to a zero-energy resonance of the Floquet Liouvillean. We then show that the entropy production per cycle is (strictly) positive, a property that implies Carnot's formulation of the second law of thermodynamics.

math-ph↗

Mean-Field- and Classical Limit of Many-Body Schrödinger Dynamics for Bosons

We present a new proof of the convergence of the N-particle Schroedinger dynamics for bosons towards the dynamics generated by the Hartree equation in the mean-field limit. For a restricted class of two-body interactions, we obtain convergence estimates uniform in the Planck constant , up to an exponentially small remainder. For h=0, the classical dynamics in the mean-field limit is given by the Vlasov equation.

math-ph↗

Blow-Up for Nonlinear Wave Equations describing Boson Stars

We consider the nonlinear wave equation $i \partial_t u= \sqrt{-Δ+ m^2} u - (|x|^{-1} \ast |u|^2) u$ on $\RR^3$ modelling the dynamics of (pseudo-relativistic) boson stars. For spherically symmetric initial data, $u_0(x) \in C^\infty_{\mathrm{c}}(\RR^3)$, with negative energy, we prove blow-up of $u(t,x)$ in $H^{1/2}$-norm within a finite time. Physically, this phenomenon describes the onset of "gravitational collapse" of a boson star. We also study blow-up in external, spherically symmetric potentials and we consider more general Hartree-type nonlinearities. As an application, we exhibit instability for ground state solitary waves at rest if $m=0$.

math-ph↗

Coherent infrared representations in non-relativistic QED

We consider dressed 1-electron states in a translation-invariant model of non-relativistic QED. To start with a well-defined model, the interaction Hamiltonian is cutoff at very large photon energies (ultraviolet cutoff) and regularized at very small photon energies (infrared regularization). The infrared regularization is then removed, and the representations of the canonical commutation relations of the electromagnetic field operators determined by the dressed 1-electron states are studied using operator-algebra methods. A key ingredient in our analysis is a bound on the renormalized electron mass uniform in the infrared regularization. Our results have important applications in the scattering theory for infraparticles.

math-ph↗

Adaiabtic theorems and reversible isothermal processes

Isothermal processes of a finitely extended, driven quantum system in contact with an infinite heat bath are studied from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanics. Notions like heat flux, work and entropy are defined for trajectories of states close to, but distinct from states of joint thermal equilibrium. A theorem characterizing reversible isothermal processes as quasi-static processes (''isothermal theorem'') is described. Corollaries concerning the changes of entropy and free energy in reversible isothermal processes and on the 0th law of thermodynamics are outlined.

math-ph↗

Mott transition in lattice boson models

We use mathematically rigorous perturbation theory to study the transition between the Mott insulator and the conjectured Bose-Einstein condensate in a hard-core Bose-Hubbard model. The critical line is established to lowest order in the tunneling amplitude.

math-ph↗

Boson Stars as Solitary Waves

We study the nonlinear equation $i \partial_t ψ= (\sqrt{-Δ+ m^2} - m) ψ- ( |x|^{-1} \ast |ψ|^2 ) ψ$ on $\RR^3$, which is known to describe the dynamics of pseudo-relativistic boson stars in the mean-field limit. For positive mass parameters, $m > 0$, we prove existence of travelling solitary waves, $ψ(t,x) = e^{i t μ} \sol_{v}(x-vt)$, with speed $|v| < 1$, where $c=1$ corresponds to the speed of light in our units. Due to the lack of Lorentz covariance, such travelling solitary waves cannot be obtained by applying a Lorentz boost to a solitary wave at rest (with $v=0$). To overcome this difficulty, we introduce and study an appropriate variational problem that yields the functions $\sol_v \in \Hhalf(\RR^3)$ as minimizers, which we call boosted ground states. Our existence proof makes extensive use of concentration-compactness-type arguments. In addition to their existence, we prove orbital stability of travelling solitary waves $ψ(t,x) = e^{it μ} \sol_v(x-vt)$ and pointwise exponential decay of $\sol_v(x)$ in $x$.

math-ph↗

The Renormalized Electron Mass in Non-Relativistic Quantum Electrodynamics

This work addresses the problem of infrared mass renormalization for a scalar electron in a translation-invariant model of non-relativistic QED. We assume that the interaction of the electron with the quantized electromagnetic field comprises a fixed ultraviolet regularization and an infrared regularization parametrized by $σ>0$. For the value $p=0$ of the conserved total momentum of electron and photon field, bounds on the renormalized mass are established which are uniform in $σ\to0$, and the existence of a ground state is proved. For $|p|>0$ sufficiently small, bounds on the renormalized mass are derived for any fixed $σ>0$. A key ingredient of our proofs is the operator-theoretic renormalization group using the isospectral smooth Feshbach map. It provides an explicit, finite algorithm that determines the renormalized electron mass at $p=0$ to any given precision.

math-ph↗

Hund's rule and metallic ferromagnetism

We study tight-binding models of itinerant electrons in two different bands, with effective on-site interactions expressing Coulomb repulsion and Hund's rule. We prove that, for sufficiently large on-site exchange anisotropy, all ground states show metallic ferromagnetism: They exhibit a macroscopic magnetization, a macroscopic fraction of the electrons is spatially delocalized, and there is no energy gap for kinetic excitations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Mean-Field Limit of Quantum Bose Gases and Nonlinear Hartree Equation

We discuss the Hartree equation arising in the mean-field limit of large systems of bosons and explain its importance within the class of nonlinear Schroedinger equations. Of special interest to us is the Hartree equation with focusing nonlinearity (attractive two-body interactions). Rigorous results for the Hartree equation are presented concerning: 1) its derivation from the quantum theory of large systems of bosons, 2) existence and stability of Hartree solitons, and 3) its point-particle (Newtonian) limit. Some open problems are described.

math-ph↗