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Quantum Transport and Relaxation

From Foundations to Applications at the Nanoscale

About this Volume:

In recent years the quantum theory of relaxation and transport has regained a lot of attention. The reasons for this renaissance are of practical, theoretical as well as of fundamental nature. In fact, novel aspects are closely linked to the ongoing miniaturization of all sorts of devices. Molecular electronics, spintronics and many other concepts that may be subsumed under the term nano-technology rely on the controlled transport of quantities like energy, charge, mass, magnetization, and information and the understanding of relaxation and loss processes. Thus, the ongoing technological progress brings one back to rather fundamental questions, and these are indeed far from being well understood.

The present volume contains a collection of papers which treat many physically relevant aspects in this field from quantum thermodynamics to the quantum theory of transport dynamics. The aim of this issue is to highlight the present status of the theory of transport and relaxation and to point out diverse directions of future research topics, the understanding of foundations of complex processes and technological applications on the nanoscale. It is meant as an overview for a diverse readership, from the student in an advanced physics course to the expert reader planning further research within the field of transport and relaxation.

Table of Contents:

• Editorial
  H.-P. Breuer, J. Gemmer, M. Michel and U. Schollwöck
• Projection operator techniques and Hilbert space averaging in the quantum theory of nonequilibrium systems    p. 1
  J. Gemmer and H.-P. Breuer
  
• Correlated projection superoperators in relaxation and transport investigations     p. 13
  M. Michel, R. Steinigeweg and H. Weimer
• Statistical relaxation in closed quantum systems and the Van Hove-limit     p. 29
  C. Bartsch and P. Vidal
• Entanglement and irreversibility in the approach to thermal equilibrium - Known and new results on thermalizing quantum channels for qubits     p. 41
  V. Scarani
• Coherent backscattering of light from saturated atoms     p. 51
  V. Shatokhin, T. Wellens, C.A. Müller and A. Buchleitner
• Relaxation dynamics of a quantum Brownian particle in an ideal gas     p. 59
  B. Vacchini and K. Hornberger
• Heat conduction in low-dimensional quantum magnets     p. 73
  C. Hess
• Anomalous transport and relaxation in classical one-dimensional models     p. 85
  G. Basile, L. Delfini, S. Lepri, R. Livi, S. Olla and A. Politi
• Anomalous transport of macromolecules in solution - A semi-phenomenological Fokker-Planck approach     p. 95
  A. Uvarov and S. Fritzsche
• Transport of cold atoms in optical lattices     p. 103
  A.R. Kolovsky
• Heat transport in quantum spin chains - Stochastic baths vs quantum trajectories     p. 113
  C. Mejia-Monasterio and H. Wichterich
• A Boltzmann equation approach to transport in finite modular quantum systems     p. 127
  M. Kadiroglu and J. Gemmer
• Transport in quasi one-dimensional spin-1/2 systems     p. 135
  F. Heidrich-Meisner, A. Honecker and W. Brenig
• Quantum state transfer and time-dependent disorder in quantum chains     p. 147
  D. Burgarth
• Quantum thermodynamic Otto machines: A spin-system approach     p. 157
  M.J. Henrich, F. Rempp and G. Mahler
• Finite-time quantum thermodynamic processes     p. 167
  T. Jahnke, J. Birjukov and G. Mahler
• Work and work fluctuations in quantum systems     p. 181
  H. Schröder, J. Teifel and G. Mahler