Weak and strong typicality in quantum systems

Lea F. Santos, Anatoli Polkovnikov, Marcos Rigol

Published 2012-02-21, updated 2012-07-13Version 2

We study the properties of mixed states obtained from eigenstates of many-body lattice Hamiltonians after tracing out part of the lattice. Two scenarios emerge for generic systems: (i) the diagonal entropy becomes equivalent to the thermodynamic entropy when a few sites are traced out (weak typicality); and (ii) the von Neumann (entanglement) entropy becomes equivalent to the thermodynamic entropy when a large fraction of the lattice is traced out (strong typicality). Remarkably, the results for few-body observables obtained with the reduced, diagonal, and canonical density matrices are very similar to each other, no matter which fraction of the lattice is traced out. Hence, for all physical quantities studied here, the results in the diagonal ensemble match the thermal predictions.