On the speed of fluctuations around thermodynamic equilibrium

Noah Linden, Sandu Popescu, Anthony J. Short, Andreas Winter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study the speed of fluctuations of a quantum system around its equilibrium state, and show that the speed is extremely small at almost all times in typical thermodynamic cases. This suggests an alternative view on the nature of thermal equilibrium and, in particular, of the origin of thermal fluctuations. We argue that instead of equilibrium being a dynamical process in which the system actively fluctuates in time, the fluctuations are due to quantum uncertainties in an essentially static state.

Original languageEnglish
Article number055021
JournalNew Journal of Physics
Volume12
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 May 2010
Externally publishedYes

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