Two identical finite quantum systems prepared initially at different temperatures, isolated from the environment, and subsequently brought into contact are demonstrated to relax towards Gibbs-like quasi-equilibrium states with a common temperature and small fluctuations around the time-averaged expectation values of generic observables. The temporal thermalization process proceeds via a chain of intermediate Gibbs-like states. We specify the conditions under which this scenario occurs and corroborate the quantum equilibration with two different models.
Categories: cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.quant-gas quant-ph