Correspondence between the Energy Equipartition Theorem in Classical Mechanics and Its Phase-Space Formulation in Quantum Mechanics
In classical physics, there is a well-known theorem in which it is established that the energy per degree of freedom is the same. However, in quantum mechanics, due to the non-commutativity of some pairs of observables and the possibility of having non-Markovian dynamics, the energy is not equally d...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Entropy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/25/6/939 |
| Summary: | In classical physics, there is a well-known theorem in which it is established that the energy per degree of freedom is the same. However, in quantum mechanics, due to the non-commutativity of some pairs of observables and the possibility of having non-Markovian dynamics, the energy is not equally distributed. We propose a correspondence between what is known as the classical energy equipartition theorem and its counterpart in the phase-space formulation in quantum mechanics based on the Wigner representation. Further, we show that in the high-temperature regime, the classical result is recovered. |
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| ISSN: | 1099-4300 |