Eigenstate thermalization and representative states on subsystems

Vedika Khemani, Anushya Chandran, Hyungwon Kim, Shivaji Lal Sondhi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

We consider a quantum system AB made up of degrees of freedom that can be partitioned into spatially disjoint regions A and B. When the full system is in a pure state in which regions A and B are entangled, the quantum mechanics of region A described without reference to its complement is traditionally assumed to require a reduced density matrix on A. While this is certainly true as an exact matter, we argue that under many interesting circumstances expectation values of typical operators anywhere inside A can be computed from a suitable pure state on A alone, with a controlled error. We use insights from quantum statistical mechanics - specifically the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) - to argue for the existence of such "representative states."

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number052133
JournalPhysical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
Volume90
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 17 2014

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Statistics and Probability

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