Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 233
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-40023-6

Regular Article

Typical response of quantum pure states

Dipartimento di Science Chimiche, Università di Padova, via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy

^b e-mail: giorgio.moro@unipd.it

Received: 10 January 2013
Received in final form: 11 March 2013
Published online: 29 May 2013

Abstract

The response of a quantum system in a pure state to an external force is investigated by reconsidering the standard statistical approach to quantum dynamics in the light of the statistical description of equilibrium based on typicality. We prove that the response of the large majority of quantum pure states subjected to the same arbitrary external perturbation tends to be close to the statistical response as the dimension of the Hilbert space increases. This is what we can term dynamical typicality. The theoretical analysis is substantiated by numerical simulations of the response of a spin system to a sudden quench of the external magnetic field. For the considered system we show that not only the system relaxes toward a new equilibrium state after the quench of the Hamiltonian but also that such a new equilibrium is compatible with the description of a thermal equilibrium.