Transmission of waves and particles through the interface: Reversibility and coherence

Abstract

We examine the transmission of quantum particles (phonons, electrons, and photons) across interfaces, identifying universal patterns in diverse physical scenarios. Starting with classical wave equations, we quantize them and derive kinetic equations. Those are matching conditions for the distribution functions of particles at the interface. We note the time irreversibility of the derived kinetic equations — an essential feature for accurately describing irreversible processes like heat transport. We identify the juncture in our derivation where the time symmetry of wave equations is disrupted, it is the assumption of the non-coherence of incident waves. Consequently, we infer that non-coherent transmission through the interface exhibits time irreversibility. We propose an experiment to validate this hypothesis.