02-454 Ilse Callens, Wojciech De Roeck, Tim Jacobs, Christian Maes, Karel Netocny

Quantum entropy production as a measure of irreversibility (367K, Postscript, PDF) Nov 13, 02

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Abstract. Considering closed and thermally isolated finite quantum systems, we derive that the total change of entropy, defined for macroscopic trajectories, can be given in terms of a density matrix and its time-reversal. The microscopic dynamics is time-reversal invariant, even when the unitary evolution is interrupted by measurements. When started in a nonequilibrium state, the resulting path space measure is not time-reversal invariant and the weight of time-reversal breaking equals the exponential of the entropy production. The mean entropy production can then be expressed via a relative entropy.

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