Dissipative evolution of quantum statistical ensembles and nonlinear response to a time-periodic perturbation

We present a detailed discussion of the evolution of a statistical ensemble of quantum mechanical systems coupled weakly to a bath. The Hilbert space of the full system is given by the tensor product between the Hilbert spaces associated with the bath and the bathed system. The statistical states of the ensemble are described in terms of density matrices. Supposing the bath to be held at some - not necessarily thermal - statistical equilibrium and tracing over the bath degrees of freedom, we obtain reduced density matrices defining the statistical states of the bathed system. The master equations describing the evolution of these reduced density matrices are derived under the most general conditions. On time scales that are large with respect to the bath correlation time τB corr and with respect to the reciprocal transition frequencies of the bathed system, the resulting evolution of the reduced density matrix of the bathed system is of Markovian type. The detailed balance relations valid for a thermal equilibrium of the bath are derived and the conditions for the validity of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem are given. Based on the general approach, we investigate the non-linear response of the bathed subsystem to a time-periodic perturbation. Summing the perturbation series we obtain the coherences and the populations for arbitrary strengths of the perturbation. © 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg.

Propriétés hors-équilibre d'une paroi adiabatique

Séverine Pache

We study the evolution of a system composed of N non-interacting particles of mass m distributed in a cylinder of length L. The cylinder is separated into two parts by an adiabatic piston of a mass M ≫ m. The length of the cylinder is a fix parameter and can be finite or infinite (in this case N is infinite). For the infinite case we carry out a perturbative analysis using Boltzmann's equation based on a development of the velocity distribution of the piston in function of a small dimensionless parameter ε = √(m/M). The non-stationary case is solved up to the order ε ;; our analysis shows that the system tends exponentially fast towards a stationary state where the piston has an average velocity V. The characteristic time scale for this relaxation is proportional to the mass of the piston (τ0 = M/A where A is the cross-section of the piston). We show that for equal pressures the collisions of the particles induce asymmetric fluctuations of the velocity of the piston which leads to a macroscopic movement of the piston in the direction of the higher temperature. In the case of the finite model a perturbative approach based on Liouville's equation (using the parameter α = 2m/(M + m)) shows that the evolution towards thermal equilibrium happens on two well separated time scales. The first relaxation step is a fast, deterministic and adiabatic evolution towards a state of mechanical equilibrium with approximately equal pressures but different temperatures. The movement of the piston is more or less damped. This damping qualitatively depends on whether the ratio R = Mgas/M between the total mass of the gas and the mass of the piston is small (R < 2) or large (R > 4). The second part of the evolution is much slower ; the typical time scales are proportional to the mass of the piston. There is a stochastic evolution including heat transfer leading to thermal equilibrium. A microscopic analysis yields the relation XM(t) = L(1/2 - ξ(at)) where the function ξ is independent of M. Using the hypothesis of homogeneity (i.e. the values of the densities, pressures and temperatures at the surface of the piston can be replaced by their respective average values) introduced in the previous analysis the observed damping does not show up. This can be explained by shock waves propagating between the piston and the walls at the extremities of the cylinder. In order to study the behaviour of the system there is hence a need to adequately describe the non-equilibrium fluids around the piston. We carry out an analysis of the infinite case, based on the perturbative approach introduced earlier. In this case the initial conditions are chosen in such a manner that the piston on average stays at the origin. It is shown that it is possible to describe the evolution of the fluids in such a way that it is coherent with the two laws of thermodynamics and the phenomenological relationships. Finally we study the case of a constant velocity of the piston in a finite cylinder. Such a condition and elastic collisions allow us to derive an explicit expression for the distribution of the fluids and hence for the hydrodynamics fields. This expression reveals the presence of shock waves between the piston and the extremities of the cylinder.

EPFL2004

Evolution of open many-electron systems

Aric Gliesche

Starting from the quantum statistical master equation derived in [1] we show how the connection to the semi-classical Boltzmann equation (SCBE) can be established and how irreversibility is related to the problem of separability of quantum mechanics. Our principle goal is to find a sound theoretical basis for the description of the evolution of an electron gas in the intermediate regime between pure classical behavior and pure quantum behavior. We investigate the evolution of one-particle properties in a weakly interacting N-electron system confined to a finite spatial region in a near-equilibrium situation that is weakly coupled to a statistical environment. The equations for the reduced n-particle density matrices, with n < N are hierarchically coupled through two-particle interactions. In order to elucidate the role of this type of coupling and of the inter-particle correlations generated by the interaction, we examine first the particular situation where energy transfer between the N-electron system and the statistical environment is negligible, but where the system has a finite memory. We then formulate the general master equation that describes the evolution of the coarse grained one-particle density matrix of an interacting confined electron gas including energy transfer with one or more bath subsystems, which is called the quantum Boltzmann equation (QBE). The connection with phase space is established by expressing the one-particle states in terms of the overcomplete basis of coherent states, which are localized in phase space. In this way we obtain the QBE in phase space. After performing an additional coarse-graining procedure in phase space, and assuming that the interaction of the electron gas and the bath subsystems is local in real space, we obtain the semi-classical Boltzmann equation. The validity range of the classical description, which introduces local dynamics in phase space is discussed.

EPFL2007

Propagation Models for Biochemical Reaction Networks

Maria-Emanuela-Canini Mateescu

In this thesis we investigate different ways of approximating the solution of the chemical master equation (CME). The CME is a system of differential equations that models the stochastic transient behaviour of biochemical reaction networks. It does so by describing the time evolution of probability distribution over the states of a Markov chain that represents a biological network, and thus its stochasticity is only implicit. The transient solution of a CME is the vector of probabilities over the states of the corresponding Markov chain at a certain time point t, and it has traditionally been obtained by applying methods that are general to continuous-time Markov chains: uniformization, Krylov subspace methods, and general ordinary differential equation (ODE) solvers such as the fourth order Runge-Kutta method. Even though biochemical reaction networks are the main application of our work, some of our results are presented in the more general framework of propagation models (PM), a computational formalism that we introduce in the first part of this thesis. Each propagation model N has two associated propagation processes, one in discrete-time and a second one in continuous-time. These propagation processes propagate a generic mass through a discrete state space. For example, in order to model a CME, N propagates probability mass. In the discrete-time case the propagation is done step-wise, while in the continuous-time case it is done in a continuous flow defined by a differential equation. Again, in the case of the chemical master equation, this differential equation is the equivalent of the chemical master equation itself where probability mass is propagated through a discrete state space. Discrete-time propagation processes can encode methods such as the uniformization method and the fourth order Runge-Kutta integration method that we have mentioned above, and thus by optimizing propagation algorithms we optimize both of these methods simultaneously. In the second part of our thesis, we define stochastic hybrid models that approximate the stochastic behaviour of biochemical reaction networks by treating some variables of the system deterministically. This deterministic approximation is done for species with large populations, for which stochasticity does not play an important role. We propose three such hybrid models, which we introduce from the coarsest to the most refined one: (i) the first one replaces some variables of the system with their overall expectations, (ii) the second one replaces some variables of the system with their expectations conditioned on the values of the stochastic variables, (iii) and finally, the third one, splits each variable into a stochastic part (for low valuations) and a deterministic part (for high valuations), while tracking the conditional expectation of the deterministic part. For each of these algorithms we give the corresponding propagation models that propagate not only probabilities but also the respective continuous approximations for the deterministic variables.

EPFL2011