Effective Dynamics of Solitons in the Presence of Rough Nonlinear Perturbations

The effective long-time dynamics of solitary wave solutions of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in the presence of rough nonlinear perturbations is rigorously studied. It is shown that, if the initial state is close to a slowly travelling soliton of the unperturbed NLS equation (in $H^1$ norm), then, over a long time scale, the true solution of the initial value problem will be close to a soliton whose center of mass dynamics is approximately determined by an effective potential that corresponds to the restriction of the nonlinear perturbation to the soliton manifold.Comment: Reference [16] added. 19 page

Cyclic thermodynamic processes and entropy production

We study the time evolution of a periodically driven quantum-mechanical system coupled to several reserviors of free fermions at different temperatures. This is a paradigm of a cyclic thermodynamic process. We introduce the notion of a Floquet Liouvillean as the generator of the dynamics on an extended Hilbert space. We show that the time-periodic state to which the true state of the coupled system converges after very many periods corresponds to a zero-energy resonance of the Floquet Liouvillean. We then show that the entropy production per cycle is (strictly) positive, a property that implies Carnot's formulation of the second law of thermodynamics.Comment: version accepted for publication in J. Stat. Phy

Adiabatic theorems for quantum resonances

We study the adiabatic time evolution of quantum resonances over time scales which are small compared to the lifetime of the resonances. We consider three typical examples of resonances: The first one is that of shape resonances corresponding, for example, to the state of a quantum-mechanical particle in a potential well whose shape changes over time scales small compared to the escape time of the particle from the well. Our approach to studying the adiabatic evolution of shape resonances is based on a precise form of the time-energy uncertainty relation and the usual adiabatic theorem in quantum mechanics. The second example concerns resonances that appear as isolated complex eigenvalues of spectrally deformed Hamiltonians, such as those encountered in the N-body Stark effect. Our approach to study such resonances is based on the Balslev-Combes theory of dilatation-analytic Hamiltonians and an adiabatic theorem for nonnormal generators of time evolution. Our third example concerns resonances arising from eigenvalues embedded in the continuous spectrum when a perturbation is turned on, such as those encountered when a small system is coupled to an infinitely extended, dispersive medium. Our approach to this class of examples is based on an extension of adiabatic theorems without a spectral gap condition. We finally comment on resonance crossings, which can be studied using the last approach.Comment: 35 pages. One remark added in section 3, and references updated. To appear in Commun. Math. Phy

Status of the Fundamental Laws of Thermodynamics

We describe recent progress towards deriving the Fundamental Laws of thermodynamics (the 0th, 1st and 2nd Law) from nonequilibrium quantum statistical mechanics in simple, yet physically relevant models. Along the way, we clarify some basic thermodynamic notions and discuss various reversible and irreversible thermodynamic processes from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanics.Comment: 23 pages. Some references updated. To appear in J. Stat. Phy

On the Quasi-Static Evolution of Nonequilibrium Steady States

Abstract.: The quasi-static evolution of steady states far from equilibrium is investigated from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanics. As a concrete example of a thermodynamic system, a two-level quantum dot coupled to several reservoirs of free fermions at different temperatures is considered. A novel adiabatic theorem for unbounded and nonnormal generators of evolution is proven and applied to study the quasi-static evolution of the nonequilibrium steady state (NESS) of the coupled syste

Cyclic Thermodynamic Processes and Entropy Production

We study the time evolution of a periodically driven quantum-mechanical system coupled to several reservoirs of free fermions at different temperatures. This is a paradigm of a cyclic thermodynamic process. We introduce the notion of a Floquet Liouvillean as the generator of the dynamics of the coupled system on an extended Hilbert space. We show that the time-periodic state which the state of the coupled system converges to after very many periods corresponds to a zero-energy resonance of the Floquet Liouvillean. We then show that the entropy production per cycle is (strictly) positive, a property that implies Carnot's formulation of the second law of thermodynamic

Status of the Fundamental Laws of Thermodynamics

We describe recent progress towards deriving the Fundamental Laws of thermodynamics (the 0th, 1st, and 2nd Law) from nonequilibrium quantum statistical mechanics in simple, yet physically relevant models. Along the way, we clarify some basic thermodynamic notions and discuss various reversible and irreversible thermodynamic processes from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanic