Local Temperature of Out-of-Equilibrium Quantum Electron Systems

Identity of electrons and ionization equilibrium

It is perhaps appropriate that, in a year marking the 90th anniversary of Meghnad Saha seminal paper (1920), new developments should call fresh attention to the problem of ionization equilibrium in gases. Ionization equilibrium is considered in the simplest "physical" model for an electronic subsystem of matter in a rarefied state, consisting of one localized electronic state in each nucleus and delocalized electronic states considered as free ones. It is shown that, despite the qualitative agreement, there is a significant quantitative difference from the results of applying the Saha formula …

Effect of Strong Magnetic Fields on the Equilibrium of a Degenerate Gas of Nucleons and Electrons

We obtain the equations that define the equilibrium of a homogeneous relativistic gas of neutrons, protons and electrons in a constant magnetic field as applied to the conditions that probably occur near the center of neutron stars. We compute the relative densities of the particles at equilibrium and the Fermi momentum of electrons in the strong magnetic field as function of the density of neutrons and the magnetic field induction. Novel features are revealed as to the ratio of the number of protons to the number of neutrons at equilibrium in the presence of large magnetic fields.

Statistics of temperature fluctuations in an electron system out of equilibrium

We study the statistics of the fluctuating electron temperature in a metallic island coupled to reservoirs via resistive contacts and driven out of equilibrium by either a temperature or voltage difference between the reservoirs. The fluctuations of temperature are well-defined provided that the energy relaxation rate inside the island exceeds the rate of energy exchange with the reservoirs. We quantify these fluctuations in the regime beyond the Gaussian approximation and elucidate their dependence on the nature of the electronic contacts.

Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Correlated Electron Transfer in Molecular Chains

The relaxation dynamics of correlated electron transport (ET) along molecular chains is studied based on a substantially improved numerically exact path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) approach. As archetypical model we consider a Hubbard chain containing two interacting electrons coupled to a bosonic bath. For this generalization of the ubiquitous spin-boson model, the intricate interdependence of correlations and dissipation leads to non-Boltzmann thermal equilibrium distributions for many-body states. By mapping the multi-particle dynamics onto an isomorphic single particle motion this phenomen…

Quantum Criticality out of Equilibrium: Steady State in a Magnetic Single-Electron Transistor

Quantum critical systems out of equilibrium are of extensive interest, but are difficult to study theoretically. We consider here the steady state limit of a single electron transistor, which is attached to ferromagnetic leads and subjected to a finite bias voltage (V). In equilibrium (i.e., V=0), this system undergoes a continuous quantum phase transition with a critical destruction of the Kondo effect. We construct an exact quantum Boltzmann treatment in a dynamical large-N limit, and determine the universal scaling functions for the I-V characteristics covering both the linear and non-linea…

非平衡电子弛豫的双温模型：综述

Two-Temperature Model of non-equilibrium electron relaxation: A Review

本文是关于金属材料中非平衡电子弛豫的综述，阐明基于BBP动力学方程的双温模型（TTM）的适用条件、纳米系统改进方案，总结领域进展并提出超越TTM的非简并电子动力学唯象方程。

多电子态非平衡量子点中的耗散热分解与自由能产生

Heat-dissipation decomposition and free-energy generation in a non-equilibrium dot with multi-electron states

通过单电子计数统计实验，研究了纳米尺度量子点在过渡到非平衡稳态过程中耗散热的分解及其与自由能产生的直接关联。

Exploring the non-equilibrium fluctuation relation for quantum mechanical tunneling of electrons across a modulating barrier

We experimentally explore the phenomenon of electron tunneling across a modulated tunneling barrier which is created between an STM tip and an Au film deposited on a vibrating piezo surface. Measurements of the time series of the quantum mechanical tunneling current across the modulating barrier show large fluctuations. Analysis of the average work done in establishing tunneling current in finite time interval shows a distribution of both positive and negative work events. The negative work events suggest tunneling against the bias voltage direction. We show that these distributions obey the G…

Metastable and stable equilibrium states of stellar electron-nuclear plasmas

By minimizing free energy density, we show that the stellar core of a hydrogen burning star is not in a global thermodynamical equilibrium unless density, temperature, mass and composition assume given values. The core (as the solar interior) may be viewed more appropriately as a metastable state with very long lifetime. Slightly non-extensive distribution function could be the natural distribution for a weakly non-ideal plasma like a stellar core and represents a more appropriate approximation to this system than a Maxwellian distribution, without affecting bulk properties of stars.