Statistical mechanics of quantum spin systems. III

AbstractIn 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.