Renato Renner
Download all documents (zip, 13 MB).
The QIT group organizes one of the pro-seminars for the
Institute of Theoretical Physics, spring 2009. The topic is the role of
information in statistical mechanics.
This is the main website for the module.
| Assignment of topics (View with Firefox, not Explorer) | ||||
Topic |
References |
Talk Date |
Student |
Supervisor |
Introduction to information theory |
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| Classical information theory |
Shannon, 1948 “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” Cover, Thomas, "Elements of Information theory", Wiley, (2006). |
Mon 2 March (2009) |
Adrian Hutter |
Roger Colbeck |
|
Quantum information theory |
Nielsen, Chuang, Quantum computation and information, Cambridge, (2000). |
Mon 2 Mar |
Lorenzo Devittori |
Roger Colbeck |
Jayne's maximum entropy principle |
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|
The principle and applications |
Jaynes E.T. Information Theory and Statistical Mechanics. Physical Review, Vol 106, No 4, 620-630, (1957). |
Mon 9 Mar |
Simon von Overbeck |
Kaiyu Yang |
| Derivations and justifications of principle |
Shore, J. E. and Johnson, R. W. (1980). Axiomatic derivation of the
principle of maximum entropy and the principle of minimum cross-entropy.
IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IT-26, 26-37.
"The Constraint Rule of the Maximum Entropy Principle", Jos
Uffink, Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 27 (1996)
47-79. |
Mon 9 Mar |
Simone Balmelli |
Fabian Hassler |
Maxwell's demon and Landauer's erasure principle |
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| Arguments for reconciling Maxwell's demon with the second law based on the impossibility of information acquisition |
Szilard, "On the decrease of entropy in a thermodynamic system by the
intervention of intelligent beings" original from (1929), translation in
Maxwell's demon: Entropy, Information, Computing, Leff and Rex,
Princeton Univ. press pp. 124-133 (1990). Brillouin, "Maxwell's demon cannot operate: information and entropy I", Journal of applied physics 22 p. 334 (1951). |
Mon 16 Mar |
Christfried Focke |
Andrei Lebedev |
|
Bennett's argument for reconciliation using Landauer's erasure principle.
|
Bennett, C.H. The Thermodynamics of Computation - a Review. International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Vol 21, No 12, (1982). Landauer, R. Irreversibility and Heat Generation in the Computing Process. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 3, 183-191. |
Mon 16 Mar |
Robin Jaeger |
Marco Tomamichel |
|
Discussion of criticisms |
Exorcist XIV: The Wrath of Maxwell's Demon. Part I. From Maxwell to Szilard. Earman and Norton Stud. Hist. Phil. Mod. Phys., Vol 29, No. 4 p435--471, 1998 Exorcist XIV: The Wrath of Maxwell's Demon. Part II. From Szilard to Landauer and Beyond. Earman and Norton Stud. Hist. Phil. Mod. Phys., Vol 30, No. 1 p1--40, 1999 |
Mon 23 Mar |
Corsin Pfister |
Oscar Dahlsten |
| Mechanical models for second law violation |
Compressible dynamics, time reversibility, Maxwell's demon, and the second law P.A.Skordos Physical Review E, vol 48, number 2, p777, 1993 Mechanical models of Maxwell's demon with noninvariant phase volume. Zhang and Zhang Physical review A, vol 46, number 8, p4598, 1992 |
Mon 23 Mar |
Philip Kupper |
Evgeny Kozik |
| Reversible computation |
Toffoli T. Reversible computation MIT/LCS/TM151, (1980). Feynman lectures on computation
|
Mon 30 Mar |
Martin Paesold |
Andrei Lebedev |
| Information erasure in a stochastic model |
Heat generation required by information erasure, Shizume, Phys Rev E, vol 52, number 4, p3495, 1995. |
Mon 30 Mar |
Niklaus Papritz |
Sergei Isakov |
| Brownian motors |
"Introduction to the physics of Brownian motors", P. Reimann and P. Hänggi, Applied Physics A, Vol. 75, 169 (2002), "Thermodynamics and Kinetics of a Brownian Motor", R. D. Astumian, Science, Vol. 276, 917 (1997). "Forced Thermal Ratchets", M. O. Magnasco, Physical Review Letters, Vol. 71, 1477. |
Mon 6 Apr |
Marco Schweizer | Fabian Hassler |
Emergence of thermal equilibrium |
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| Entanglement between system and environment I |
Bocchieri, P. and Loinger, A. Phys. Rev. 114, 948–951 (1959). Chapter , 'Pure-state quantum statistical mechanics and black holes', in Lloyd, S. Black Holes, Demons and the Loss of Coherence, Thesis, Rockefeller Univ. (1988). |
Mon 6 Apr |
Maximilian Kelm |
Peter Pickl |
| Ostermontag-no proseminar | Mon 13 April | |||
| Entanglement between system and environment II |
Popescu, S., Short, A. J. and Winter, A. Nature Phys. 2, 754–758 (2006). |
Mon 20 Apr |
Markus Schmassmann |
Marco Tomamichel |
| Entanglement between system and environment III |
Linden, N., Popescu, S., Short, A.J. and Winter, A., Quantum mechanical evolution towards thermal equilibrium, arXiv:0812.2385 (2008). |
Mon 20 Apr |
Daniel Lercher |
Wojciech De Roeck |
| Explicit thermalisation models I |
Calabrese, P. and Cardy, J., Entanglement Entropy and Quantum Field
Theory: A Non-Technical Introduction, Int. J. on Quantum Information, 4
(2006), arXiv:quant-ph/0505193. Calabrese, P. and Cardy, Entanglement Entropy and Quantum Field Theory, hep-th/0405152 (2008). |
Mon 27 Apr |
Nikolaus Buchheim |
Andreas Rüegg |
| Explicit thermalisation models II |
Derivation of master equations in Chapter 3 of "The theory of open quantum systems" H.-P. Breuer and F. Petruccione, (Oxford university press, Oxford, 2002)(Examples of approach to thermal equilibrium in sections 3.4.2 and 3.4.6). |
Mon 27 Apr |
Martin Fluder |
Johan Aaberg |
| Eigenstate thermalisation |
"Quantum statistical mechanics in a closed system", J. M. Deutsch, Physical Review A, Vol. 43, 2046 (1991), "Chaos and quantum thermalization", M. Srednicki, Physical Review E, Vol. 50, 888 (1994). "Thermalization and its mechanism for generic isolated quantum systems", M. Rigol, V. Dunjko, and M. Olshanii, Nature, Vol. 452, 854 (2008). |
Mon 4 May |
Pierre Rodriguez |
Gang Zhou |
|
Ergodicity
[Whiteboard talk] |
"Modern Ergodic theory" J. L. Lebowitz and O. Penrose, Physics Today, February 1973, p.23
"Weak and strong chaos in Fermi-Pasta-Ulam models and
beyond" M. Pettini, L. Casetti, M. Cerrutti-Sola, R. Franzosi, E. G. D.
Cohen |
Mon 4 May |
Maximilian Andrae |
Johan Aaberg |
Miscellaneous |
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| Fluctuation theorems |
"The Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Small Systems", C.
Bustamante, J. Liphart, and F. Ritort, Physics Today, Vol. 58, no. 7, 43
(2005). "Entropy production fluctuation theorem and the nonequilibrium work relation for free energy differences", G. E. Crooks, Physical Review E, Vol. 60, 2721 (1999). "Nonequilibrium Equality for Free Energy Differences", C. Jarzynski, Physical Review Letters Vol. 78, 2690 (1997). |
Mon 11 May |
Vincent Beaud | Sebastian Schmidt |
| Black hole information paradox, Hawking radiation |
Do Black Holes Destroy Information? John Preskill http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/9209058] Hawking radiation and black hole thermodynamics A review by Don Page: http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1367-2630/7/1/203/njp5_1_203.html |
Mon 11 May |
Alex Vitanov |
Stefan Hohenegger |
|
Explanation of paradox based on state merging
[Whiteboard talk-no slides] |
Black holes as mirrors: quantum information in random subsystems Hayden, Preskill, arXiv.org:0708.4025 |
Mon 18 May |
Szher Oleg |
Roberto Volpato |
| Entropy in biophysics |
What Is Life? Mind and Matter, E. Schrödinger, Cambridge University Press, (1944). Thermodynamics of natural selection I: Energy flow and the limits on organization, |
Mon 18 May |
Robert Polster |
Oscar Dahlsten |
| Arrow of time and entropy |
Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry, Eds J. J. Halliwell, J. Pérez-Mercader, Cambridge Univ. Press, (1994).
Lebowitz, Macroscopic Laws, Microscopic Dynamics, Time's Arrow and Boltzmann's Entropy, Physica A, 194:1-27, (1993). http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~lebowitz/PUBLIST/publistmod.html A quantum solution to the arrow-of-time dilemma, Lorenzo Maccone, arXiv:0802.0438v2 (2008). |
Mon 25 May |
Iwan Gloor |
Ingo Kirsch |
| Algorithmic complexity |
"Algorithmic randomness and physical entropy" W. H. Zurek, Physical Review A, Vol. 40, 4731 (1989). |
Mon 25 May |
Marek Pikulski | Charlotte Gils |
The talks start 8.45 in HIT K51 (Hoenggerberg) and should normally not last longer than until 12.30. See table above for the dates of the talks.
The student is assigned a topic to learn about and
eventually explain to the others in the class. This is done both by an
oral presentation and a written report.
Criteria for obtaining a Testat, i.e. passing the module:
* Give a presentation that is pedagogical and demonstrates solid understanding of the material.
* Be present at least 80% of the time.
* Hand in a written report of your talk in English.
* Ask at least one question in the semester.
You
are supposed to give a "professional" talk in English. If you do not
know how to do this, ask your assistant immediately for assistance. The
talk should be 45-1h30 minutes long.
Students in the audience are expected to ask questions and
think of a good question to ask at the end of the presentation. If the
speaker does not know the answer they should say so, rather than risk
giving incorrect/confusing answers.
A student will be associated
with a research assistant at the institute who will be available to
support the student. Please be sure to contact your respective assistant
at least six weeks before your talk to discuss logistics. Be sure to
keep your assistant updated of your work at least once a week.
One week before your talk you are expected to have a
draft of your report as well as a finished set of slides (the report can
be handed in later and is not necessary for the talk).
The written report is in English. Note that no report = no Testat.
Deadline 1, Fri 15 May: Send report to assistant for feedback
Deadline 2, Fri 29 May: Send final version to colbeck@phys.ethz.ch
The report will be compiled to a book with all other
contributions, and must therefore be prepared using a specific LaTeX
macro. This was created by Prof Katzgraber who previously organised the
proseminar, but any questions should be addressed to us.
LATEX MACRO (Download the file 'template.tgz' and use those files only)
INSTRUCTIONS (Follow these carefully)