Can thermal quantum Gibbs states approve as quantum equilibrium states?

arXiv:1802.07468v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: In this study, we investigate a quantum harmonic oscillator interacting with a thermal bath of oscillatory fields in a quantum circuit. By solving the Lindblad master equation, we calculate the resulting interference pattern from measuring the system in the momentum space. Interestingly, we show that even if one considers the decoherence effect, the system will keep some of its quantum properties. Indeed, the equilibration does not completely leave the system in a Gibbs state, and the system remains coherent. Moreover we discuss the requirements of a process that can be called a thermalization. We show that in our system, the quantum thermodynamic equilibration process cannot be considered a thermalization. Also, we discussed that a Lindblad system-bath interaction cannot be explained by a thermalization process. Such an effect strongly can be detected when the frequency of the central system is high and the temperature is low. Then, by introducing an entropy measure, we show that although the system is in maximum entropy, the equilibrium state is far from the Gibbs state.

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