On the Basis of Quantum Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We propose a new approach to justify the use of the microcanonical ensemble for isolated macroscopic quantum systems. Since there are huge number of independent observables in a macroscopic system, we cannot see all of them. Actually what we observe can be written in a rather simple combination of local observables. Considering this limitation, we show that almost all states in a energy shell are practically indistinguishable from one another, and hence from the microcanonical ensemble. In particular, the expectation value of a macroscopic observable is very close to its microcanonical ensemble average for almost all states.