Universal energy fluctuations in thermally isolated driven systems
Files
Accepted manuscript
Date
2011-11-01
Authors
Bunin, Guy
D'Alessio, Luca
Kafri, Yariv
Polkovnikov, Anatoli
Version
Accepted manuscript
OA Version
Citation
Guy Bunin, Luca D'Alessio, Yariv Kafri, Anatoli Polkovnikov. 2011. "Universal energy fluctuations in thermally isolated driven systems." NATURE PHYSICS, Volume 7, Issue 11, pp. 913 - 917 (5). https://doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS2057
Abstract
When an isolated system is brought in contact with a heat bath, its final energy is random and follows the Gibbs distribution—this finding is a cornerstone of statistical physics. The system’s energy can also be changed by performing non-adiabatic work using a cyclic process. Almost nothing is known about the resulting energy distribution in this set-up, which is in particular relevant to recent experimental progress in cold atoms, ion traps, superconducting qubits and other systems. Here we show that when the non-adiabatic process consists of many repeated cyclic processes, the resulting energy distribution is universal and different from the Gibbs ensemble. We predict the existence of two qualitatively different regimes with a continuous second-order-like transition between them. We illustrate our approach by performing explicit calculations for both interacting and non-interacting systems.