Macrostate equivalence of two general ensembles and specific relative entropies

Abstract: The two criteria of ensemble equivalence, i.e. the macrostate equivalence and the measure equivalence, are investigated for a general pair of states. The macrostate equivalence implies the two ensembles are indistinguishable by the measurement of macroscopic quantities obeying the large-deviation principle, and the measure equivalence means that the specific relative entropy of these two states vanishes in the thermodynamic limit. It is shown that the measure equivalence implies the macrostate equivalence for a general pair of states by deriving an inequality connecting the large-deviation rate functions to the specific relative Renyi entropies. The result is applicable to both quantum and classical systems. As applications, a sufficient condition for thermalization, the timescale of quantum dynamics of macrovariables, and the second law with strict irreversibility in a quantum quench are discussed.