Juerg Froehlich, Marco Merkli, Simon Schwarz, Daniel Ueltschi
Statistical Mechanics of Thermodynamic Processes
(242K, postscript)

ABSTRACT.  We describe some results concerning non-relativistic quantum systems 
at positive temperature and density confined to macroscopically large 
(infinite) regions of physical space. 
 In a general discussion of time-dependent thermodynamic processes, 
we propose a definition of (time-dependent) entropy which has natural 
physical properties. In this general framework, we show that for a class 
of time-dependent perturbations approaching a limiting perturbation, the 
system exhibits return to equilibrium. If the perturbation is periodic 
then the system approaches a time-periodic state for large times. 
 We apply these results to a reservoir of non-relativistic 
non-interacting fermions.