arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Michel Bauer.
We study from a statistical mechanics viewpoint some of the simplest mathematical objects, finite pure sets. Starting from the empty set, new generations are produced step by step, sets of the next generation being those whose elements are the sets of the current generation. We compute in particular correlations and limiting laws for chains of various lengths for the membership relation when the number of generations becomes large.
We present a new description of the known large deviation function of the classical symmetric simple exclusion process by exploiting its connection with the quantum symmetric simple exclusion processes and using tools from free probability. This may seem paradoxal as free probability usually deals with non commutative probability while the simple exclusion process belongs to the realm of classical probability. On the way, we give a new formula for the free energy -- alias the logarithm of the Laplace transform of the probability distribution -- of correlated Bernoulli variables in terms of the set of their cumulants with non-coinciding indices. This latter result is obtained either by developing a combinatorial approach for cumulants of products of random variables or by borrowing techniques from Feynman graphs.
We devise a semi-classical model to describe the transport properties of low-dimensional fermionic lattices under the influence of external quantum stochastic noise. These systems behave as quantum stochastic resistors, where the bulk particle transport is diffusive and obeys the Ohm/Fick's law. Here, we extend previous exact studies beyond the one-dimensional limit to ladder geometries and explore different dephasing mechanisms that are relevant to different physical systems, from solid-state to cold atoms. We find a non-trivial dependence of the conductance of these systems on the chemical potential of the reservoirs. We then introduce a semi-classical approach that is in good agreement with the exact numerical solution and provides an intuitive and simpler interpretation of transport in quantum stochastic resistors. Moreover, we find that the conductance of quantum ladders is insensitive to the coherence of the dephasing process along the direction transverse to transport, despite the fact that the system reaches different stationary states. We conclude by discussing the case of dissipative leads affected by dephasing, deriving the conditions for which they effectively behave as Markovian injectors of particles in the system.
We give conditions under which a sequence of randomly chosen orthogonal subspaces of a separable Hilbert space generates the whole space.
We study the dynamics of random walks hopping on homogeneous hyper-cubic lattices and multiplying at a fertile site. In one and two dimensions, the total number $\mathcal{N}(t)$ of walkers grows exponentially at a Malthusian rate depending on the dimensionality and the multiplication rate $μ$ at the fertile site. When $d>d_c=2$, the number of walkers may remain finite forever for any $μ$; it surely remains finite when $μ\leq μ_d$. We determine $μ_d$ and show that $\langle\mathcal{N}(t)\rangle$ grows exponentially if $μ>μ_d$. The distribution of the total number of walkers remains broad when $d\leq 2$, and also when $d>2$ and $μ>μ_d$. We compute $\langle \mathcal{N}^m\rangle$ explicitly for small $m$, and show how to determine higher moments. In the critical regime, $\langle \mathcal{N}\rangle$ grows as $\sqrt{t}$ for $d=3$, $t/\ln t$ for $d=4$, and $t$ for $d>4$. Higher moments grow anomalously, $\langle \mathcal{N}^m\rangle\sim \langle \mathcal{N}\rangle^{2m-1}$, in the critical regime; the growth is normal, $\langle \mathcal{N}^m\rangle\sim \langle \mathcal{N}\rangle^{m}$, in the exponential phase. The distribution of the number of walkers in the critical regime is asymptotically stationary and universal, viz. it is independent of the spatial dimension. Interactions between walkers may drastically change the behavior. For random walks with exclusion, if $d>2$, there is again a critical multiplication rate, above which $\langle\mathcal{N}(t)\rangle$ grows linearly (not exponentially) in time; when $d\leq d_c=2$, the leading behavior is independent on $μ$ and $\langle\mathcal{N}(t)\rangle$ exhibits a sub-linear growth.
We prove an identity in integral geometry, showing that if $P_x$ and $Q_x$ are two polynomials, $\int {\rm d}x\, δ(P_x) \otimes δ(Q_x)$ is proportional to $δ(R)$ where $R$ is the resultant of $P_x$ and $Q_x$.
For a quantum system in a macroscopically large volume $V$, prepared in a pure state and subject to maximally noisy or ergodic unitary dynamics, the reduced density matrix of any sub-system $v\ll V$ is almost surely totally mixed. We show that the fluctuations around this limiting value, evaluated according to the invariant measure of these unitary flows, are captured by the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE) of random matrix theory. An extension of this statement, applicable when the unitary transformations conserve the energy but are maximally noisy or ergodic on any energy shell, allows to decipher the fluctuations around canonical typicality. According to typicality, if the large system is prepared in a generic pure state in a given energy shell, the reduced density matrix of the sub-system is almost surely the canonical Gibbs state of that sub-system. We show that the fluctuations around the Gibbs state are encoded in a deformation of the GUE whose covariance is specified by the Gibbs state. Contact with the eigenstate thermalisation hypothesis (ETH) is discussed.
Motivated by the search for a quantum analogue of the macroscopic fluctuation theory, we study quantum spin chains dissipatively coupled to quantum noise. The dynamical processes are encoded in quantum stochastic differential equations. They induce dissipative friction on the spin chain currents. We show that, as the friction becomes stronger, the noise induced dissipative effects localize the spin chain states on a slow mode manifold, and we determine the effective stochastic quantum dynamics of these slow modes. We illustrate this approach by studying the quantum stochastic Heisenberg spin chain.
Motivated by studies of indirect measurements in quantum mechanics, we investigate stochastic differential equations with a fixed point subject to an additional infinitesimal repulsive perturbation. We conjecture, and prove for an important class, that the solutions exhibit a universal behavior when time is rescaled appropriately: by fine-tuning of the time scale with the infinitesimal repulsive perturbation, the trajectories converge in a precise sense to spiky trajectories that can be reconstructed from an auxiliary time-homogeneous Poisson process. Our results are based on two main tools. The first is a time change followed by an application of Skorokhod's lemma. We prove an effective approximate version of this lemma of independent interest. The second is an analysis of first passage times, which shows a deep interplay between scale functions and invariant measures. We conclude with some speculations of possible applications of the same techniques in other areas.
We propose to use the effect of measurements instead of their number to study the time evolution of quantum systems under monitoring. This time redefinition acts like a microscope which blows up the inner details of seemingly instantaneous transitions like quantum jumps. In the simple example of a continuously monitored qubit coupled to a heat bath, we show that this procedure provides well defined and simple evolution equations in an otherwise singular strong monitoring limit. We show that there exists anomalous observable localised on sharp transitions which can only be resolved with our new effective time. We apply our simplified description to study the competition between information extraction and dissipation in the evolution of the linear entropy. Finally, we show that the evolution of the new time as a function of the real time is closely related to a stable Levy process of index 1/2.
A quantum system subjected to a strong continuous monitoring undergoes quantum jumps. This very well known fact hides a neglected subtlety: sharp scale-invariant fluctuations invariably decorate the jump process even in the limit where the measurement rate is very large. This article is devoted to the quantitative study of these remaining fluctuations, which we call spikes, and to a discussion of their physical status. We start by introducing a classical model where the origin of these fluctuations is more intuitive and then jump to the quantum realm where their existence is less intuitive. We compute the exact distribution of the spikes for a continuously monitored qubit. We conclude by discussing their physical and operational relevance.
Small quantum systems can now be continuously monitored experimentally which allows for the reconstruction of quantum trajectories. A peculiar feature of these trajectories is the emergence of jumps between the eigenstates of the observable which is measured. Using the Stochastic Master Equation (SME) formalism for continuous quantum measurements, we show that the density matrix of a system indeed shows a jumpy behavior when it is subjected to a tight measurement (even if the noise in the SME is Gaussian). We are able to compute the jump rates analytically for any system evolution, i.e. any Lindbladian, and we illustrate how our general recipe can be applied to two simple examples. We then discuss the mathematical, foundational and practical applications of our results. The analysis we present is based on a study of the strong noise limit of a class of stochastic differential equations (the SME) and as such the method may be applicable to other physical situations in which a strong noise limit plays a role.
Thermal contact is the archetype of non-equilibrium processes driven by constant non-equilibrium constraints enforced by reservoirs exchanging conserved microscopic quantities. In models with a finite number of possible configurations, if the microscopic dynamics is assumed to be deterministic and ergodic and to conserve energy according to some specific pattern, and if the mesoscopic evolution of the global system is approximated by a Markov process as closely as possible, then the mesoscopic transition rates obey three constraints. In the limit where macroscopic bodies can be considered as reservoirs at thermodynamic equilibrium (but with different intensive parameters) the third constraint becomes modified detailed balance (MDB) ; the latter is generically expressed in terms of the microscopic exchange entropy variation. We investigate the generic statistical properties for measurable quantities that arise from the MDB constraint. For a finite-time evolution after the system prepared in an equilibrium state has been set in contact with thermostats at different temperatures, we derive a detailed fluctuation relation for the excess exchange entropy variation. In the non-equilibrium stationary state (long-time limit), the proper mathematical definition of a large deviation function is introduced together with alternative definitions, and fluctuation relations are rederived. The generalization to systems exchanging energy, volume and matter with several reservoirs, with a possible conservative external force acting on the contact system, is given explicitly. The infinite time limit of any odd cumulant per unit time of exchanged quantities is expressed in terms of a series involving higher even cumulants and powers of the thermodynamic forces associated to independent mean currents.
A diathermal wall between two heat baths at different temperatures can be mimicked by a layer of independent spin pairs with some internal energy and where each spin $σ_a$ is flipped by thermostat $a$ ($a=1,2$). The transition rates are determined from the modified detailed balance discussed in Ref.[1]. Generalized heat capacities, excess heats, the housekeeping entropy flow and the thermal conductivity in the steady state are calculated. The joint probability distribution of the heat cumulated exchanges at any time is computed explicitly. We obtain the large deviation function of heat transfer via a variety of approaches. In particular, by a saddle-point method performed accurately, we obtain the explicit expressions not only of the large deviation function, but also of the amplitude prefactor, in the long-time probability density for the heat current. The following physical properties are discussed : the effects of typical time scales of the mesoscopic dynamics which do not appear in equilibrium statistical averages and the limit of strict energy dissipation towards a thermostat when its temperature goes to zero. We also derive some properties of the fluctuations in the two-spin system viewed as a thermal machine performing cycles.
Thermal contact is the archetype of non-equilibrium processes driven by constant non-equilibrium constraints when the latter are enforced by reservoirs exchanging conserved microscopic quantities. At a mesoscopic scale only the energies of the macroscopic bodies are accessible together with the configurations of the contact system. We consider a class of models where the contact system, as well as macroscopic bodies, have a finite number of possible configurations. The global system with only discrete degrees of freedom has no microscopic Hamiltonian dynamics, but it is shown that, if the microscopic dynamics is assumed to be deterministic and ergodic and to conserve energy according to some specific pattern, and if the mesoscopic evolution of the global system is approximated by a Markov process as closely as possible, then the mesoscopic transition rates obey three constraints. In the limit where macroscopic bodies can be considered as reservoirs at thermodynamic equilibrium (but with different intensive parameters) the mesoscopic transition rates turn into transition rates for the contact system and the third constraint becomes local detailed balance ; the latter is generically expressed in terms of the microscopic exchange entropy variation, namely the opposite of the variation of the thermodynamic entropy of the reservoir involved in a given microscopic jump of the contact system configuration. For a finite-time evolution after contact has been switched on we derive a fluctuation relation for the joint probability of the heat amounts received from the various reservoirs. The generalization to systems exchanging energy, volume and matter with several reservoirs, with a possible conservative external force acting on the contact system, is given explicitly.
Classically, no transfer occurs between two equally filled reservoirs no matter how one looks at them, but the situation can be different quantum mechanically. This paradoxically surprising phenomenon rests on the distinctive property of the quantum world that one cannot stare at a system without disturbing it. It was recently discovered that this seemingly annoying feature could be harnessed to control small quantum systems using weak measurements. Here we present one of the simplest models -- an idealised double quantum dot -- where by toying with the dot measurement strength, i.e. the intensity of the look, it is possible to create a particle flux in an otherwise completely symmetric system. The basic property underlying this phenomena is that measurement disturbances are very different on a system evolving unitarily and a system evolving dissipatively. This effect shows that adaptive measurements can have dramatic effects enabling transport control but possibly inducing biases in the measurement of macroscopic quantities if not handled with care.
A quantum system in contact with a heat bath undergoes quantum transitions between energy levels upon absorption or emission of energy quanta by the bath. These transitions remain virtual unless the energy of the system is measured repeatedly, even continuously in time. Isolating the two indispensable mechanisms in competition, we describe in a synthetic way the main physical features of thermally activated quantum jumps. Using classical tools of stochastic analysis, we compute in the case of a two-level system the complete statistics of jumps and transition times in the limit when the typical measurement time is small compared to the thermal relaxation time. The emerging picture is that quantum trajectories are similar to those of a classical particle in a noisy environment, subject to transitions a la Kramer in a multi-well landscape, but with a large multiplicative noise.
Open quantum random walks (OQRWs) deal with quantum random motions on the line for systems with internal and orbital degrees of freedom. The internal system behaves as a quantum random gyroscope coding for the direction of the orbital moves. We reveal the existence of a transition, depending on OQRW moduli, in the internal system behaviors from simple oscillations to random flips between two unstable pure states. This induces a transition in the orbital motions from usual diffusion to ballistically induced diffusion with large mean free path and large effective diffusion constant at large time. We also show that mixed states of the internal system are converted into random pure states during the process. We touch upon possible experimental realizations.