Maximum entropy quantum state distributions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a maximum entropy approach for generating many-body quantum state distributions conditioned on conservation laws, revealing deviations from thermal states and exploring entanglement properties for experimental state engineering.

Contribution

It extends thermodynamic principles to quantum state distributions by conditioning on full conserved quantity distributions, offering new insights into non-thermal quantum states.

Findings

Deviations from thermal states increase with wider input distributions.

Quantum state properties are characterized using entanglement measures.

Strategies for experimental quantum state engineering are discussed.

Abstract

We propose an approach to the realization of many-body quantum state distributions inspired by combined principles of thermodynamics and mesoscopic physics. Its essence is a maximum entropy principle conditioned by conservation laws. We go beyond traditional thermodynamics and condition on the full distribution of the conserved quantities. The result are quantum state distributions whose deviations from `thermal states' get more pronounced in the limit of wide input distributions. We describe their properties in terms of entanglement measures and discuss strategies for state engineering by methods of current date experimentation.