Abstract
The phenomenon described by our title should surprise no one. What may be surprising though is how easy it is to produce a quantum system with this feature; moreover, that system is one that is often used for the purpose of showing how systems equilibrate. The violation can be variously manifested. In our detailed example, bringing a detuned 2-level system into contact with a monochromatic reservoir does not cause it to relax to the reservoir temperature; rather, the system acquires the reservoir’s level-occupation-ratio.
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Gaveau, B., Schulman, L.S. Violation of the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics for a Non-ergodic Interaction. J Stat Phys 145, 1458–1471 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-011-0362-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-011-0362-0