Center for Theory of Quantum Matter Seminar

Operational Quantum Statistical Mechanics, presented by Dr. Amit Vikram (University of Colorado Boulder) Quantum thermalization in many-body systems is traditionally described in terms of the structure of energy eigenstates, which is computationally inaccessible for large systems, typically requiring exponential complexity in the system size. Moreover, eigenstate-based approaches only provide rigorous theoretical constraints on thermalization over exponentially long times, often extending beyond the age of the universe. In view of these challenges, we will describe recent progress towards building an eigenstate-free operational framework for justifying the emergence of quantum statistical mechanics. This framework concerns the prediction of finite- or infinite-time thermalization in an overwhelming fraction of initial states (in every basis of the many-particle Hilbert space) solely from the finite-time behavior of different kinds of finitely computable quantum correlation functions. F...