Quantum analogue of energy equipartition theorem

Abstract

One of the fundamental laws of classical statistical physics is the energy equipartition theorem which states that for each degree of freedom the mean kinetic energy Ek equals , where is the Boltzmann constant and T is the temperature of the system. Despite the fact that quantum mechanics has already been developed for more than 100 years, still there is no quantum counterpart of this theorem. We attempt to fill this far-reaching gap and consider the simplest system, i.e. the Caldeira–Leggett model for a free quantum Brownian particle in contact with a thermostat consisting of an infinite number of harmonic oscillators. We prove that the mean kinetic energy Ek of the Brownian particle equals the mean kinetic energy per one degree of freedom of the thermostat oscillators, i.e. . We show that this relation can be obtained from the fluctuation–dissipation theorem derived within the linear response theory and is universal in the sense that it holds true for any linear and non-linear systems in contact with a bosonic thermostat.