Quantum Statistical Mechanics

Many-body theory stands at the foundation of modern quantum statistical mechanics. It is introduced here to graduate students in physics, chemistry, engineering and biology. The book provides a contemporary understanding of irreversibility, particularly in quantum systems. It explains entropy production in quantum kinetic theory and in the master equation formulation of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. The first half of the book focuses on the foundations of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics with emphasis on quantum mechanics. The second half of the book contains alternative views of quantum statistical mechanics, and topics of current interest for advanced graduate level study and research. Unique to textbooks on this subject, this book contains a discussion of the fundamental Gleason theorem. Quantum entanglements are treated in application to quantum computation and the difficulties arising from decoherence. The relativistic generalization of the Boltzmann equation is derived, and modern transport applications to reservoir ballistic transport are developed.

1. Foundations of quantum statistical mechanics; 2. Elementary examples; 3. Quantum statistical master equation; 4. Quantum kinetic equations; 5. Quantum irreversibility; 6. Entropy and dissipation: the microscopic theory; 7. Global equilibrium: thermostatics and the microcanonical ensemble; 8. Bose-Einstein ideal gas condensation; 9. Scaling, renormalization and the Ising model; 10. Relativistic covariant statistical mechanics of many particles; 11. Quantum optics and damping; 12. Entanglements; 13. Quantum measurement and irreversibility; 14. Quantum Langevin equation: quantum Brownian motion; 15. Linear response: fluctuation and dissipation theorems; 16. Time dependent quantum Green's functions; 17. Decay scattering; 18. Quantum statistical mechanics, extended; 19. Quantum transport with tunneling and reservoir ballistic transport; 20. Black hole thermodynamics; Appendix; Index.

W. C. Schieve is Professor Emeritus in the Physics Department and Center for Complex Quantum Systems at the University of Texas, Austin. His research interests lie in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and its applications to areas such as quantum optics, relativistic statistical mechanics, dynamical models in biophysics, and chaos theory.
L. P. Horwitz is Professor of Physics Emeritus in the School of Physics at Tel Aviv University. He is also Professor of Physics at Bar Ilan University, and Research Director in Theoretical Physics at Ariel University.