Thermal Equilibrium of a Macroscopic Quantum System in a Pure State.

We consider the notion of thermal equilibrium for an individual closed macroscopic quantum system in a pure state, i.e., described by a wave function. The macroscopic properties in thermal equilibrium of such a system, determined by its wave function, must be the same as those obtained from thermodynamics, e.g., spatial uniformity of temperature and chemical potential. When this is true we say that the system is in macroscopic thermal equilibrium (MATE). Such a system may, however, not be in microscopic thermal equilibrium (MITE). The latter requires that the reduced density matrices of small subsystems be close to those obtained from the microcanonical, equivalently the canonical, ensemble for the whole system. The distinction between MITE and MATE is particularly relevant for systems with many-body localization for which the energy eigenfuctions fail to be in MITE while necessarily most of them, but not all, are in MATE. We note, however, that for generic macroscopic systems, including those with MBL, most wave functions in an energy shell are in both MATE and MITE. For a classical macroscopic system, MATE holds for most phase points on the energy surface, but MITE fails to hold for any phase point.

Rounding of first order transitions in low-dimensional quantum systems with quenched disorder.

We prove that the addition of an arbitrarily small random perturbation to a quantum spin system rounds a first-order phase transition in the conjugate order parameter in d < or = 2 dimensions, or for cases involving the breaking of a continuous symmetry in d < or = 4. This establishes rigorously for quantum systems the existence of the Imry-Ma phenomenon which for classical systems was proven by Aizenman and Wehr.

Inheritance of epigenetic chromatin silencing.

Maintenance of alternative chromatin states through cell divisions pose some fundamental constraints on the dynamics of histone modifications. In this paper, we study the systems biology of epigenetic inheritance by defining and analyzing general classes of mathematical models. We discuss how the number of modification states involved plays an essential role in the stability of epigenetic states. In addition, DNA duplication and the consequent dilution of marked histones act as a large perturbation for a stable state of histone modifications. The requirement that this large perturbation falls into the basin of attraction of the original state sometimes leads to additional constraints on effective models. Two such models, inspired by two different biological systems, are compared in their fulfilling the requirements of multistability and of recovery after DNA duplication. We conclude that in the presence of multiple histone modifications that characterize alternative epigenetic stable states, these requirements are more easily fulfilled.

Crystalline Ordering and Large Fugacity Expansion for Hard-Core Lattice Particles.

Using an extension of Pirogov-Sinai theory, we prove phase transitions, corresponding to sublattice orderings, for a general class of hard-core lattice particle systems with a finite number of perfect coverings. These include many cases for which such transitions have been proven. The proof also shows that for these systems the Gaunt-Fisher expansion of the pressure in powers of the inverse fugacity (aside from an explicit logarithmic term) has a nonzero radius of convergence.

Percolation in the harmonic crystal and voter model in three dimensions.

We investigate the site percolation transition in two strongly correlated systems in three dimensions: the massless harmonic crystal and the voter model. In the first case we start with a Gibbs measure for the potential U=(J2) summation operatorx,y[phi(x)-phi(y)]2, x,y Z3, J>0, and phi(x) R, a scalar height variable, and define occupation variables rhoh(x)=1 (0) for phi(x)>h (

A note on Lee-Yang zeros in the negative half-plane.

We obtain lower bounds on the inverse compressibility of systems whose Lee-Yang zeros of the grand-canonical partition function lie in the left half of the complex fugacity plane. This includes in particular systems whose zeros lie on the negative real axis such as the monomer-dimer system on a lattice. We also study the virial expansion of the pressure in powers of the density for such systems. We find no direct connection between the positivity of the virial coefficients and the negativity of the L-Y zeros, and provide examples of either one or both properties holding. An explicit calculation of the partition function of the monomer-dimer system on two rows shows that there are at most a finite number of negative virial coefficients in this case.

Local mean field models of uniform to nonuniform density fluid-crystal transitions.

We investigate the existence of nontranslation invariant (periodic) density profiles, for systems interacting via translation invariant long-range potentials, as minimizers of local mean field free energy functionals. The existence of a second-order transition from a uniform to a nonuniform density at a specified temperature is proven for a class of model systems.

Population dynamics in spatially heterogeneous systems with drift: The generalized contact process.

We investigate the time evolution and stationary states of a stochastic, spatially discrete, population model (contact process) with spatial heterogeneity and imposed drift (wind) in one and two dimensions. We consider in particular a situation in which space is divided into two regions: an oasis and a desert (low and high death rates). Carrying out computer simulations we find that the population in the (quasi) stationary state will be zero, localized, or delocalized, depending on the values of the drift and other parameters. The phase diagram is similar to that obtained by Nelson and coworkers from a deterministic, spatially continuous model of a bacterial population undergoing convection in a heterogeneous medium.

Pair approximation of the stochastic susceptible-infected-recovered-susceptible epidemic model on the hypercubic lattice.

We investigate the time evolution and steady states of the stochastic susceptible-infected-recovered-susceptible (SIRS) epidemic model on one- and two-dimensional lattices. We compare the behavior of this system, obtained from computer simulations, with those obtained from the mean-field approximation (MFA) and pair approximation (PA). The former (latter) approximates higher-order moments in terms of first- (second-) order ones. We find that the PA gives consistently better results than the MFA. In one dimension, the improvement is even qualitative.

Behavior of susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemics on heterogeneous networks with saturation.

We investigate saturation effects in susceptible-infected-susceptible models of the spread of epidemics in heterogeneous populations. The structure of interactions in the population is represented by networks with connectivity distribution P(k), including scale-free (SF) networks with power law distributions P(k) approximately k(-gamma). Considering cases where the transmission of infection between nodes depends on their connectivity, we introduce a saturation function C(k) which reduces the infection transmission rate lambda across an edge going from a node with high connectivity k. A mean-field approximation with the neglect of degree-degree correlation then leads to a finite threshold lambda(c) >0 for SF networks with 2

Nonequilibrium stationary state of a truncated stochastic nonlinear Schrödinger equation: formulation and mean-field approximation.

We investigate the stationary state of a model system evolving according to a modified focusing truncated nonlinear Schrödinger equation used to describe the envelope of Langmuir waves in a plasma. We restrict the system to have a finite number of normal modes each of which is in contact with a Langevin heat bath at temperature T . Arbitrarily large realizations of the field are prevented by restricting each mode to a maximum amplitude. We consider a simple modeling of wave breaking in which each mode is set equal to zero when it reaches its maximum amplitude. Without wave breaking the stationary state is given by a Gibbs measure. With wave breaking the system attains a nonequilibrium stationary state which is the unique invariant measure of the time evolution. A mean-field analysis shows that the system exhibits a transition from a regime of low-field values at small |lambda| , to a regime of higher-field values at large |lambda| , where lambda<0 specifies the strength of the nonlinearity in the focusing case. Field values at large |lambda| are significantly smaller with wave breaking than without wave breaking.

Approach to thermal equilibrium of macroscopic quantum systems.

We consider an isolated macroscopic quantum system. Let H be a microcanonical "energy shell," i.e., a subspace of the system's Hilbert space spanned by the (finitely) many energy eigenstates with energies between E and E+deltaE . The thermal equilibrium macrostate at energy E corresponds to a subspace H(eq) of H such that dim H(eq)/dim H is close to 1. We say that a system with state vector psi is the element of H is in thermal equilibrium if psi is "close" to H(eq). We show that for "typical" Hamiltonians with given eigenvalues, all initial state vectors psi(0) evolve in such a way that psi(t) is in thermal equilibrium for most times t. This result is closely related to von Neumann's quantum ergodic theorem of 1929.

Canonical typicality.

It is well known that a system weakly coupled to a heat bath is described by the canonical ensemble when the composite S + B is described by the microcanonical ensemble corresponding to a suitable energy shell. This is true for both classical distributions on the phase space and quantum density matrices. Here we show that a much stronger statement holds for quantum systems. Even if the state of the composite corresponds to a single wave function rather than a mixture, the reduced density matrix of the system is canonical, for the overwhelming majority of wave functions in the subspace corresponding to the energy interval encompassed by the microcanonical ensemble. This clarifies, expands, and justifies remarks made by Schrödinger in 1952.

Hydrodynamics of binary fluid phase segregation.

Starting with the Vlasov-Boltzmann equation for a binary fluid mixture, we derive an equation for the velocity field u when the system is segregated into two phases (at low temperatures) with a sharp interface between them. u satisfies the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations together with a jump boundary condition for the pressure across the interface which, in turn, moves with a velocity given by the normal component of u. Numerical simulations of the Vlasov-Boltzmann equations for shear flows parallel and perpendicular to the interface in a phase segregated mixture support this analysis. We expect similar behavior in real fluid mixtures.