When , the additive is negligible and both quantum distributions reduce to the Maxwell--Boltzmann factor .
Fermi-Dirac distribution by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The Fermi-Dirac distribution follows from Fermi-Dirac statistics and is .
The mean occupation of a fermionic one-particle state of energy is
At zero temperature this becomes the step function .
Density of states by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The density of states is defined so that counts one-particle states with energies in an interval of width . A sum over closely spaced states then becomes an integral weighted by .
Bose-Einstein distribution by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The mean occupation of a bosonic one-particle state of energy is
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution describes the random velocities and speeds of particles in a classical ideal gas at thermal equilibrium. Individual particles keep changing velocity through collisions, while the equilibrium probability distribution stays fixed. For one species of particle mass at positive temperature , the characteristic scale is
where is the Boltzmann constant. A signed velocity component follows a normal distribution; the nonnegative magnitude follows the Maxwell speed distribution. Their peaks differ because a speed measurement groups together all directions of motion.
Use the gas rest frame, three spatial dimensions, and nonrelativistic particles, with where is the speed of light. Assume a dilute gas whose interactions between encounters can be neglected in the ideal gas approximation and whose translational motion is classical. A sufficient condition for negligible quantum exchange effects is , where is the number density and the thermal de Broglie wavelength. Diluteness alone does not guarantee thermal equilibrium; the gas must have equilibrated. These are the assumptions behind the classical Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution. [ref] [ref]
The connection to Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics is the Boltzmann factor for translational kinetic energy, . Normalizing over velocity gives a probability density; an occupation factor instead specifies a mean occupation, with chemical potential . Their normalizations serve different purposes. [ref]
This connects microscopic motion to measurements: a gas thermometer uses the ideal gas law, collisions and the mean free path govern transport, and measurements of spectral lines use thermal Doppler broadening to infer temperature. Each probes a different aspect of the same thermal motion.
In 1860, James Clerk Maxwell presented the component and speed laws in Part I, Proposition IV of Illustrations of the Dynamical Theory of Gases, pp. 22–23. His argument combined independence of the three velocity components with isotropy, and he explicitly compared the component law with the normal distribution of observational errors. Independence is an assumption of that argument; perpendicular coordinate axes alone do not establish it. [ref]
Two commensurate quantum harmonic oscillators by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For independent frequencies and ,
so the eigenspace at energy has one basis state for each nonnegative solution of .
Creation and annihilation operators by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The bosonic ladder operators satisfy
Gravitationally induced entanglement by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-28
When two masses occupy spatial superpositions, their branch-dependent Newtonian gravitational potential energy produces relative phases. If those phases cannot be separated into one phase for each mass, the interaction turns an initial product state into an entangled state.
Exact quantum phase estimation by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
If , controlled powers of applied to a uniform -state control register produce
These states are the Fourier basis. Applying the inverse quantum Fourier transform and measuring returns with probability one.
For the cyclic shift and the convention
the Fourier states obey
Consequently , where .
Quantum period finding by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For a function of period dividing , prepare a uniform superposition of inputs, evaluate the function into a second register, and measure that register. The first register becomes a periodic coset state. Applying the quantum Fourier transform and measuring gives
Quantum Fourier transform of a periodic coset state by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Let divide and
The geometric sum in the quantum Fourier transform vanishes unless is a multiple of . Thus measurement after the transform returns the values
with equal probabilities .
Square of the quantum Fourier transform by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-28
The root-of-unity filter gives
Thus , while the square is an involution whose eigenvalues lie in .
Vacuum ambiguity in a nonstationary spacetime by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Without a preferred timelike Killing flow there is no canonical positive-frequency splitting. Different choices are related by a Bogoliubov transformation and generally define different particle notions and vacuum states.
Positive-frequency solution by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Relative to a timelike Killing field , a positive-frequency solution obeys with . Such solutions define the one-particle space and annihilation operators of a stationary vacuum.
Klein-Gordon inner product by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-28
For complex solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation,
The associated current is conserved, so the inner product is independent of the Cauchy hypersurface when boundary flux vanishes.
Stabilizer code by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A stabilizer code is the common eigenspace of a stabilizer group , an abelian subgroup of the Pauli group excluding . Choose independent stabilizer generators on physical qubits. They are commuting Hermitian operators, each squaring to . The stabilizer subspace and its orthogonal projector are
The stabilizer-projector formula gives , so logical qubits remain. Independent here means that no nonempty product of the chosen stabilizer generators is . Excluding is necessary: a vector cannot simultaneously be fixed by and unless it is zero.
For the three-qubit bit-flip repetition code, take and , with the Pauli Z gate on site and identities elsewhere. The stabilizer group is . Both stabilizer generators have eigenvalue exactly on the span of and , giving dimensions for one logical qubit. A projective measurement of these checks distinguishes four orthogonal two-dimensional sectors rather than eight individual computational basis states.
A Pauli error that anticommutes with a stabilizer generator changes that check's sign, producing an error syndrome. A Pauli operator commuting with every check can still act on the logical qubits; the centralizer of a stabilizer group describes these possibilities. Thus the number of checks determines the encoded dimension, while the quantum code distance determines protection against arbitrary local errors. The five-qubit error correcting code, for instance, has four stabilizer generators and quantum code distance three; the three-qubit bit-flip repetition code has two checks but quantum code distance one because a single phase flip is unflagged. [ref].
Knill--Laflamme condition by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A code projector corrects errors exactly when for every pair.
Quantum recoherence by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Quantum recoherence is a later restoration of phase coherence. It can occur when a finite environment revisits a state having substantial overlap with its initial conditional state.
Decoherence factor by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
If a joint pure state is , the off-diagonal entry of the system's reduced density matrix is multiplied by the environmental overlap . Independent repeated interactions multiply these overlaps.

There are unlisted articles, also show them or only show them.