Understanding quantum work in a quantum many-body system

TL;DR

This paper investigates the relationship between quantum and classical work distributions in many-body systems, demonstrating convergence in the semiclassical limit and supporting the quantum work definition via energy measurements.

Contribution

It extends the quantum-classical correspondence of work distributions from single particles to complex many-body systems, including interactions and indistinguishability.

Findings

Quantum work distribution converges to classical in the semiclassical limit.

The correspondence holds even with particle interactions and indistinguishability.

Supports the validity of quantum work measurement methods in many-body systems.

Abstract

Based on previous studies in a single particle system in both the integrable [Jarzynski, Quan, and Rahav, Phys.~Rev.~X {\bf 5}, 031038 (2015)] and the chaotic systems [Zhu, Gong, Wu, and Quan, Phys.~Rev.~E {\bf 93}, 062108 (2016)], we study the the correspondence principle between quantum and classical work distributions in a quantum many-body system. Even though the interaction and the indistinguishability of identical particles increase the complexity of the system, we find that for a quantum many-body system the cumulative quantum work distribution still converges to its classical counterpart in the semiclassical limit. Our results imply that there exists a correspondence principle between quantum and classical work distributions in an interacting quantum many-body system, especially in the large particle number limit, and further justify the definition of quantum work via two point energy measurements in quantum many-body systems.