The canonical ensemble

In analogy to the classical canonical ensemble, the quantum canonical ensemble is defined by

\[ \underline {\rho } \]		\(e^{-\beta H}\)
\[f(E_i) \]		\(e^{-\beta E_i}\)

Thus, the quantum canonical partition function is given by

\[Q(N,V,T) = {\rm Tr}(e^{-\beta H}) = \sum_i e^{-\beta E_i}\]

and the thermodynamics derived from it are the same as in the classical case:

\[A (N, V, T ) \]		\(-{1 \over \beta}\ln Q(N,V,T)\)
\[E (N, V, T ) \]		\(-{\partial \over \partial \beta}\ln Q(N,V,T)\)
\[ P (N, V, T) \]		\({1 \over \beta}{\partial \over \partial V}\ln Q(N,V,T)\)

etc. Note that the expectation value of an observable \(A\) is

\[\langle A \rangle = {1 \over Q}{\rm Tr}(Ae^{-\beta H})\]

Evaluating the trace in the basis of eigenvectors of \(H\) (and of \(\underline {\rho } \) ), we obtain

\[\langle A \rangle = {1 \over Q}\sum_i \langle E_i\vert Ae^{-\beta H} \vert E_i \rangle = {1 \over Q}\sum_i e^{-\beta E_i} \langle E_i\vert A\vert E_i\rangle\]

The quantum canonical ensemble will be particularly useful to us in many things to come.

Contributors and Attributions

Mark Tuckerman (New York University)