Thermalization of Isolated Quantum Systems: If and How? Thermalization of Isolated Bose-Einstein Condensates by Dynamical Heat Bath Generation

A quantum system, isolated from the environment and initially in a single, “pure” quantum state, will evolve in time according to the Schrodinger equation, that is, it will remain in a pure state for all times. This is also true for a many-body quantum system. At first sight, this fundamental feature of quantum dynamics appears impossible to reconcile with experimental observations that show a sufficiently complex quantum system typically relaxes fast to thermal behavior if left on its own. This constitutes the quantum thermalization problem.

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