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Quantum chaos and the arrow of time
by Nilakash Sorokhaibam
Submission summary
| Authors (as registered SciPost users): | Nilakash Sorokhaibam |
| Submission information | |
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| Preprint Link: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03914v9 (pdf) |
| Date submitted: | 2024-04-16 05:53 |
| Submitted by: | Sorokhaibam, Nilakash |
| Submitted to: | SciPost Physics |
| Ontological classification | |
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| Academic field: | Physics |
| Specialties: |
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| Approaches: | Theoretical, Computational |
Abstract
Classical physics possesses an arrow of time in the form of the second law of thermodynamics. But a clear picture of the quantum origin of the arrow of time has been lacking so far. In this letter, we show that an arrow of time arises naturally in quantum chaotic systems. We show that, for an isolated quantum system which is also chaotic, the change in entropy is non-negative when the system is perturbed. At leading order in perturbation theory, this result follows from Berry's conjecture and eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH). We show that this gives rise to a new profound constraint on the off-diagonal terms in the ETH statement. In case of an integrable system, the second law does not hold true because the system does not thermalize to a generalized Gibbs ensemble after a finite perturbation.