Chaos and Thermalization in a Dynamical Model of Two Interacting Particles

Abstract

A quantum dynamical model of two interacting spins, with chaotic and regular components, is investigated using a finite two-particles symmetrized basis. Chaotic eigenstates give rise to an equilibrium occupation number distribution in close agreement with the Bose-Einstein distribution despite the small number of particles ($n=2$). However, the corresponding temperature differs from that derived from the standard Canonical Ensemble. On the other side, an acceptable agreement with the latter is restored by artificially randomizing the model. Different definitions of temperature are then discussed and compared .