Emergent thermodynamics in a quenched quantum many-body system

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermodynamic properties of a quantum many-body system undergoing a sudden quench, focusing on work statistics, fluctuation relations, and irreversibility, exemplified by a transverse Ising model.

Contribution

It introduces a framework to characterize irreversibility in closed quantum systems during nonequilibrium quenches, linking thermodynamics with quantum dynamics.

Findings

Irreversibility can be accurately characterized in quantum quenches.

Work statistics and fluctuation relations are analyzed in the model.

The transverse Ising model exemplifies the theoretical framework.

Abstract

We study the statistics of the work done, the fluctuation relations and the irreversible entropy production in a quantum many-body system subject to the sudden quench of a control parameter. By treating the quench as a thermodynamic transformation we show that the emergence of irreversibility in the nonequilibrium dynamics of closed many-body quantum systems can be accurately characterized. We demonstrate our ideas by considering a transverse quantum Ising model that is taken out of equilibrium by the instantaneous switching of the transverse field.