Statistical mechanics of quantum spin systems. III

Abstract

In the algebraic formulation the thermodynamic pressure, or free energy, of a spin system is a convex continuous functionP defined on a Banach space$\mathfrak{B}$ of translationally invariant interactions. We prove that each tangent functional to the graph ofP defines a set of translationally invariant thermodynamic expectation values. More precisely each tangent functional defines a translationally invariant state over a suitably chosen algebra$\mathfrak{A}$ of observables, i. e., an equilibrium state. Properties of the set of equilibrium states are analysed and it is shown that they form a dense set in the set of all invariant states over$\mathfrak{A}$. With suitable restrictions on the interactions, each equilibrium state is invariant under time-translations and satisfies the Kubo-Martin-Schwinger boundary condition. Finally we demonstrate that the mean entropy is invariant under time-translations.