{
  "annotation_id": "26e18488-4c98-4ea3-933d-0cdce5654f5c",
  "date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:02.661000Z",
  "date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:02.661000Z",
  "file_hash": "003fe09f32ceeaf63ba9dbffe2357c65f42cc63965c48a8cdf03fd839b6022e3",
  "private": false,
  "record": {
    "abstract": "We consider a quantum system of fixed size consisting of a regular chain of\n$n$-level subsystems, where $n$ is finite. Forming groups of $N$ subsystems\neach, we show that the strength of interaction between the groups scales with\n$N^{- 1/2}$. As a consequence, if the total system is in a thermal state with\ninverse temperature $\\beta$, a sufficient condition for subgroups of size $N$\nto be approximately in a thermal state with the same temperature is $\\sqrt{N}\n\\gg \\beta \\bar{\\delta E}$, where $\\bar{\\delta E}$ is the width of the occupied\nlevel spectrum of the total system. These scaling properties indicate on what\nscale local temperatures may be meaningfully defined as intensive variables.\nThis question is particularly relevant for non-equilibrium scenarios such as\nheat conduction etc.",
    "arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0312158",
    "authors": [
      "M. Hartmann",
      "J. Gemmer",
      "G. Mahler",
      "O. Hess"
    ],
    "categories": [
      "quant-ph"
    ],
    "doi": "10.1209/epl/i2003-10166-3",
    "journal_ref": "Europhys. Lett. 65, 613-619 (2004)",
    "title": "Scaling behavior of interactions in a modular quantum system and the   existence of local temperature",
    "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0312158"
  },
  "schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
  "source": {
    "execution_id": "f773676f-7a1c-4949-8754-d950076c04a7",
    "id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
    "type": "Model",
    "variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
    "version": "0.1.0"
  },
  "user_id": 1000002
}