Speaker
Description
The foundations of quantum mechanics have always been
closely tied to statistical physics; historically, of
course, the former subject began through wrestling with
unresolved issues in the latter. This presentation
introduces a new concept, statistical superdegeneracy
(unrelated to magnetism and band structures) that may have
implications for quantum foundations. As one possible
motivation, consider population inversion (e.g., in
lasers). It is a nonequilibrium phenomenon owing to the
dominance of the Boltzmann factor in determining state
occupancy under thermal equilibrium. State degeneracy,
while adding detail, is assumed to be of secondary
importance. In this paper, a new type of degeneracy is
explored, one that increases sufficiently rapidly with energy so as to
dominate the Boltzmann exponential, thereby leading to new
phenomena, like population inversion at thermal
equilibrium as well as stationary quantum currents. Physical systems that might exhibit this anomalous
degeneracy are proposed, and ramifications for quantum and
statistical foundations are discussed.
| Topic: | Mini-workshop: Quantum Foundations and Quantum Information |
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