Quantropy

Abstract

There is a well-known analogy between statistical and quantum mechanics. In statistical mechanics, Boltzmann realized that the probability for a system in thermal equilibrium to occupy a given state is proportional to exp(-E/kT) where E is the energy of that state. In quantum mechanics, Feynman realized that the amplitude for a system to undergo a given history is proportional to exp(-S/i hbar) where S is the action of that history. In statistical mechanics we can recover Boltzmann's formula by maximizing entropy subject to a constraint on the expected energy. This raises the question: what is the quantum mechanical analogue of entropy? We give a formula for this quantity, which we call "quantropy". We recover Feynman's formula from assuming that histories have complex amplitudes, that these amplitudes sum to one, and that the amplitudes give a stationary point of quantropy subject to a constraint on the expected action. Alternatively, we can assume the amplitudes sum to one and that they give a stationary point of a quantity we call "free action", which is analogous to free energy in statistical mechanics. We compute the quantropy, expected action and free action for a free particle, and draw some conclusions from the results.