Classical and quantum KMS states on spin lattice systems

TL;DR

This paper explores the relationship between classical and quantum KMS states in spin lattice systems, establishing that quantum thermal states converge to classical thermal equilibrium in the semiclassical limit and identifying conditions for their uniqueness.

Contribution

It introduces a strict deformation quantization for spin systems on $ ext{S}^2$, compares classical and quantum KMS states, and provides criteria for their uniqueness at high temperatures.

Findings

Quantum KMS states' weak*-limits satisfy classical KMS conditions.

Semiclassical limit of quantum states describes classical thermal equilibrium.

Conditions for uniqueness of classical and quantum KMS states at high temperature.

Abstract

We study the classical and quantum KMS conditions within the context of spin lattice systems. Specifically, we define a strict deformation quantization (SDQ) for a $\mathbb{S}^2$-valued spin lattice system over $\mathbb{Z}^d$ generalizing the renown Berezin SDQ for a single sphere. This allows to promote a classical dynamics on the algebra of classical observables to a quantum dynamics on the algebra of quantum observables. We then compare the notion of classical and quantum thermal equilibrium by showing that any weak*-limit point of a sequence of quantum KMS states fulfils the classical KMS condition. In short, this proves that the semiclassical limit of quantum thermal states describes classical thermal equilibrium, strenghtening the physical interpretation of the classical KMS condition. Finally we provide two sufficient conditions ensuring uniqueness of classical and quantum KMS states: The latter are based on an version of the Kirkwood-Salzburg equations adapted to the system of interest. As a consequence we identify a mild condition which ensures uniqueness of classical KMS states and of quantum KMS states for the quantized dynamics for a common sufficiently high temperature.