arXiv subjects

Philipp Strasberg

Publications and source records attributed to Philipp Strasberg.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Approximate Decoherence, Recoherence and Records in Isolated Quantum Systems

Using the framework of decoherent histories, we study which past events leave detectable records in isolated quantum systems under the realistic assumption that decoherence is approximate and not perfect. In the first part we establish -- asymptotically for a large class of (pseudo-)random histories -- that the number of reliable records can be much smaller than the number of possible events, depending on the degree of decoherence. In the second part we reveal a clear decoherence structure for long histories based on a numerically exact solution of a random matrix model that, as we argue, captures generic aspects of decoherence. We observe recoherence between histories with a small Hamming distance, for localized histories admitting a high purity Petz recovery state, and for maverick histories that are statistical outliers with respect to Born's rule. From the perspective of the Many Worlds Interpretation, the first part -- which views the self-location problem as a coherent version of quantum state discrimination -- reveals a "branch selection problem", and the second part sheds light on the emergence of Born's rule and the theory confirmation problem.

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arXiv2025

Unification of observational entropy with maximum entropy principles

We introduce a definition of coarse-grained entropy that unifies measurement-based (observational entropy) and max-entropy-based (Jaynes) approaches to coarse-graining, by identifying physical constraints with information theoretic priors. The definition is shown to include as special cases most other entropies of interest in physics. We then consider second laws, showing that the definition admits new entropy increase theorems and connections to thermodynamics. We survey mathematical properties of the definition, and show it resolves some pathologies of the traditional observational entropy in infinite dimensions. Finally, we study the dynamics of this entropy in a quantum random matrix model and a classical hard sphere gas. Together the results suggest that this generalized observational entropy can form the basis of a highly general approach to statistical mechanics.

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arXiv2024

Toy Model Challenging Prevailing Definitions of Classicality

We analyze a toy model that obeys environmentally induced decoherence and quantum Darwinism and satisfies the decoherent histories criterion and Leggett-Garg inequalities with respect to the pointer basis. Yet, the resulting "classical" dynamics are extremely fragile and recohere after a seemingly innocent control operation. This challenges the idea that classical behaviour or the Multiverse branches can be identified by looking at the universal wave function alone. It also demonstrates that quantum Darwinism is compatible with strong non-Markovianity. Possible solutions related to Markovianity, non-integrability and an operational definition of pointer states are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2024

Typical Positivity of Nonequilibrium Entropy Production for Pure States

We establish that the nonequilibrium dynamics of most pure states gives rise to the same entropy production as that of the corresponding ensemble, provided the effective dimension of the ensemble is large enough. This establishes the positivity of entropy production under a wide variety of nonequilibrium situations. Our results follow from dynamical typicality and suitable continuity properties alone, without relying on non-integrability, and they complement other recent efforts to establish "pure state second laws". An explicit comparison with the distinctively different two-point measurement scheme is also provided.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Quantum master equation from the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis

We use the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis to derive a quantum master equation for a system weakly coupled to a chaotic finite-sized bath prepared in a pure state. We show that the emergence of Markovianity is controlled by the spectral function of the ETH and that local detailed balance emerges in the Markovian regime for a broad class of pure bath states. We numerically verify this result by comparing the master equation to dynamics computed using exact diagonalization of a chaotic Hamiltonian. We also compare the master equation to exact dynamics for an integrable bath and find that at finite size they strongly disagree. Our work puts forward eigenstate thermalization as a foundation for open quantum systems theory, thus extending it beyond ensemble bath preparations to chaotic many-body environments in generic pure states.

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arXiv2024

Decoherence of Histories: Chaotic Versus Integrable Systems

We study the emergence of decoherent histories in isolated systems based on exact numerical integration of the Schr\"odinger equation for a Heisenberg chain. We reveal that the nature of the system, which we switch from (i) chaotic to (ii) interacting integrable to (iii) non-interacting integrable, strongly impacts decoherence \new{of coarse spin observables}. From a finite size scaling law we infer a strong exponential suppression of coherences for (i), a weak exponential suppression for (ii) and no exponential suppression for (iii) on a relevant short (nonequilibrium) time scale. Moreover, for longer times we find stronger decoherence for (i) but the opposite for (ii), hinting even at a possible power-law decay for (ii) at equilibrium time scales. This behaviour is encoded in the multi-time properties of the quantum histories and it can not be explained by environmentally induced decoherence. Our results suggest that chaoticity plays a crucial role in the emergence of classicality in finite size systems.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Comparative Microscopic Study of Entropies and their Production

We study the time evolution of eleven microscopic entropy definitions (of Boltzmann-surface, Gibbs-volume, canonical, coarse-grained-observational, entanglement and diagonal type) and three microscopic temperature definitions (based on Boltzmann, Gibbs or canonical entropy). This is done for the archetypal nonequilibrium setup of two systems exchanging energy, modeled here with random matrix theory, based on numerical integration of the Schroedinger equation. We consider three types of pure initial states (local energy eigenstates, decorrelated and entangled microcanonical states) and three classes of systems: (A) two normal systems, (B) a normal and a negative temperature system and (C) a normal and a negative heat capacity system. We find: (1) All types of initial states give rise to the same macroscopic dynamics. (2) Entanglement and diagonal entropy sensitively depend on the microstate, in contrast to all other entropies. (3) For class B and C, Gibbs-volume entropies can violate the second law and the associated temperature becomes meaningless. (4) For class C, Boltzmann-surface entropies can violate the second law and the associated temperature becomes meaningless. (5) Canonical entropy has a tendency to remain almost constant. (6) For a Haar random initial state, entanglement or diagonal entropy behave similar or identical to coarse-grained-observational entropy.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2023

Shearing Off the Tree: Emerging Branch Structure and Born's Rule in an Equilibrated Multiverse

Within the many worlds interpretation (MWI) it is believed that, as time passes on, the linearity of the Schr\"odinger equation together with decoherence generate an exponentially growing tree of branches where "everything happens", provided the branches are defined for a decohering basis. By studying an example, using exact numerical diagonalization of the Schr\"odinger equation to compute the decoherent histories functional, we find that this picture needs revision. Our example shows decoherence for histories defined at a few times, but a significant fraction (often the vast majority) of branches shows strong interference effects for histories of many times. In a sense made precise below, the histories independently sample an equilibrated quantum process, and, remarkably, we find that only histories that sample frequencies in accordance with Born's rule remain decoherent. Our results suggest that there is more structure in the many worlds tree than previously anticipated, influencing arguments of both proponents and opponents of the MWI.

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arXiv2023

Microscopic contributions to the entropy production at all times: From nonequilibrium steady states to global thermalization

Based on exact integration of the Schr\"odinger equation, we numerically study microscopic contributions to the entropy production for the single electron transistor, a paradigmatic model describing a single Fermi level tunnel coupled to two baths of free fermions. To this end, we decompose the entropy production into a sum of information theoretic terms and study them across all relevant time scales, including the nonequilibrium steady state regime and the final stage of global thermalization. We find that the entropy production is dominated for most times by microscopic deviations from thermality in the baths and the correlation between (but not inside) the baths. Despite these microscopic deviations from thermality, the temperatures and chemical potentials of the baths thermalize as expected, even though our model is integrable. Importantly, this observation is confirmed for both initially mixed and pure states. We further observe that the bath-bath correlations are quite insensitive to the system-bath coupling strength contrary to intuition. Finally, the system-bath correlation, small in an absolute sense, dominates in a relative sense and displays pure quantum correlations for all studied parameter regimes.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2023

Comment on "Extending the Laws of Thermodynamics for Arbitrary Autonomous Quantum Systems"

Recently, Elouard and Lombard Latune [PRX Quantum 4, 020309 (2023)] claimed to extend the laws of thermodynamics to "arbitrary quantum systems" valid "at any scale" using "consistent" definitions allowing them to "recover known results" from the literature. I show that their definitions are in conflict with textbook thermodynamics and over- or underestimate the real entropy production by orders of magnitude. The cause of this problem is traced back to problematic definitions of entropy and temperature, the latter, for instance, violates the zeroth law. It is pointed out that another framework presented in PRX Quantum 2, 030202 (2021) does not suffer from these problems, while Elouard and Lombard Latune falsely claim that it only provides a positive entropy production for a smaller class of initial states. A simple way to unify both approaches is also presented.

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arXiv2023

First Principles Numerical Demonstration of Emergent Decoherent Histories

Within the histories formalism the decoherence functional is a formal tool to investigate the emergence of classicality in isolated quantum systems, yet an explicit evaluation of it from first principles has not been reported. We provide such an evaluation for up to five-time histories based on exact numerical diagonalization of the Schr\"odinger equation. We find a robust emergence of decoherence for slow and coarse observables of a generic random matrix model and extract a finite size scaling law by varying the Hilbert space dimension over four orders of magnitude. Specifically, we conjecture and observe an exponential suppression of coherent effects as a function of the particle number of the system. This suggests a solution to the preferred basis problem of the many worlds interpretation (or the set selection problem of the histories formalism) within a minimal theoretical framework -- without relying on environmentally induced decoherence, quantum Darwinism, Markov approximations, low-entropy initial states or ensemble averages.

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arXiv2023

Classicality with(out) decoherence: Concepts, relation to Markovianity, and a random matrix theory approach

Answers to the question how a classical world emerges from underlying quantum physics are revisited, connected and extended as follows. First, three distinct concepts are compared: decoherence in open quantum systems, consistent/decoherent histories and Kolmogorov consistency. Second, the crucial role of quantum Markovianity (defined rigorously) to connect these concepts is established. Third, using a random matrix theory model, quantum effects are shown to be exponentially suppressed in the measurement statistics of slow and coarse observables despite the presence of large amount of coherences. This is also numerically exemplified, and it highlights the potential and importance of non-integrability and chaos for the emergence of classicality.

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arXiv2022

Classicality, Markovianity and local detailed balance from pure state dynamics

When describing the effective dynamics of an observable in a many-body system, the repeated randomness assumption, which states that the system returns in a short time to a maximum entropy state, is a crucial hypothesis to guarantee that the effective dynamics is classical, Markovian and obeys local detailed balance. While the latter behaviour is frequently observed in naturally occurring processes, the repeated randomness assumption is in blatant contradiction to the microscopic reversibility of the system. Here, we show that the use of the repeated randomness assumption can be justified in the description of the effective dynamics of an observable that is both slow and coarse, two properties we will define rigorously. Then, our derivation will invoke essentially only the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and typicality arguments. While the assumption of a slow observable is subtle, as it provides only a necessary but not sufficient condition, it also offers a unifying perspective applicable to, e.g., open systems as well as collective observables of many-body systems. All our ideas are numerically verified by studying density waves in spin chains.

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arXiv2021

Equilibration of Multitime Quantum Processes in Finite Time Intervals

A generic non-integrable (unitary) out-of-equilibrium quantum process, when interrogated across many times, is shown to yield the same statistics as an (non-unitary) equilibrated process. In particular, using the tools of quantum stochastic processes, we prove that under loose assumptions, quantum processes equilibrate within finite time intervals. Sufficient conditions for this to occur are that multitime observables are coarse grained in both space and time, and that the initial state overlaps with many different energy eigenstates. These results help bridge the gap between (unitary) quantum and (non-unitary) statistical physics, i.e., when all multitime properties and correlations are well approximated by stationary quantities, which includes non-Markovianity and temporal entanglement. We discuss implications of this result for the emergence of classical stochastic processes from multitime measurements of an underlying genuinely quantum system.

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arXiv2021

First and Second Law of Quantum Thermodynamics: A Consistent Derivation Based on a Microscopic Definition of Entropy

Deriving the laws of thermodynamics from a microscopic picture is a central quest of statistical mechanics. This tutorial focuses on the derivation of the first and second law for closed and open quantum systems far from equilibrium, where such foundational questions also become practically relevant for emergent nanotechnologies. The derivation is based on a microscopic definition of five essential quantities: internal energy, thermodynamic entropy, work, heat and temperature. These definitions are shown to satisfy the phenomenological laws of nonequilibrium thermodynamics for a large class of states and processes. The consistency with previous results is demonstrated. The framework applies to multiple baths including particle transport and accounts for processes with, e.g., a changing temperature of the bath, which is determined microscopically. An integral fluctuation theorem for entropy production is satisfied. In summary, this tutorial introduces a consistent and versatile framework to understand and apply the laws of thermodynamics in the quantum regime and beyond.

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arXiv2021

Relaxation of Multitime Statistics in Quantum Systems

Equilibrium statistical mechanics provides powerful tools to understand physics at the macroscale. Yet, the question remains how this can be justified based on a microscopic quantum description. Here, we extend the ideas of pure state quantum statistical mechanics, which focus on single time statistics, to show the equilibration of isolated quantum processes. Namely, we show that most multitime observables for sufficiently large times cannot distinguish a nonequilibrium process from an equilibrium one, unless the system is probed for an extremely large number of times or the observable is particularly fine-grained. A corollary of our results is that the size of non-Markovianity and other multitime characteristics of a nonequilibrium process also equilibrate.

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arXiv2021

Open quantum systems coupled to finite baths: A hierarchy of master equations

An open quantum system in contact with an infinite bath approaches equilibrium, while the state of the bath remains unchanged. If the bath is finite, the open system still relaxes to equilibrium, but it induces a dynamical evolution of the bath state. In this work, we study the dynamics of open quantum systems in contact with finite baths. We obtain a hierarchy of master equations that improve their accuracy by including more dynamical information of the bath. For instance, as the least accurate but simplest description in the hierarchy we obtain the conventional Born-Markov-secular master equation. Remarkably, our framework works even if the measurements of the bath energy are imperfect, which, not only is more realistic, but also unifies the theoretical description. Also, we discuss this formalism in detail for a particular non-interacting environment where the Boltzmann temperature and the Kubo-Martin-Schwinger relation naturally arise. Finally, we apply our hierarchy of master equations to study the central spin model.

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arXiv2021

Clausius Inequality for Finite Baths Reveals Universal Efficiency Improvements

We study entropy production in nanoscale devices, which are coupled to finite heat baths. This situation is of growing experimental relevance, but most theoretical approaches rely on a formulation of the second law valid only for infinite baths. We fix this problem by pointing out that already Clausius' paper from 1865 contains an adequate formulation of the second law for finite heat baths, which can be also rigorously derived from a microscopic quantum description. This Clausius' inequality shows that nonequilibrium processes are less irreversible than previously thought. We use it to correctly extend Landauer's principle to finite baths and we demonstrate that any heat engine in contact with finite baths has a higher efficiency than previously thought. Importantly, our results are easy to study, requiring only the knowledge of the average bath energy.

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