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Table of contents (26 chapters)
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Front Matter
Keywords
About this book
This extended tutorial essay views thermodynamics as an incomplete description of quantum systems with many degrees of freedom. The main goal is to show that the approach to equilibrium - with equilibrium characterized by maximum ignorance about the open system of interest - neither requires that many particles nor is it a precise way of partitioning relevant for the salient features of equilibrium and equilibration. Moreover it is indeed quantum effects that are at work in bringing about universal thermodynamic behaviour of modestly sized open systems. Von Neumann`s concept of entropy thus proves to be much more widely useful than something to be feared, and far beyond truly macroscopic systems in equilibrium.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Quantum Thermodynamics
Book Subtitle: Emergence of Thermodynamic Behavior Within Composite Quantum Systems
Authors: J. Gemmer, M. Michel, G. Mahler
Series Title: Lecture Notes in Physics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/b98082
Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg
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eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004
eBook ISBN: 978-3-540-44513-5Published: 11 February 2005
Series ISSN: 0075-8450
Series E-ISSN: 1616-6361
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 287
Topics: Quantum Physics, Mathematical Methods in Physics, Thermodynamics