The Boltzmann distribution and the quantum-classical correspondence

Abstract: In this paper we explore the following question: can the probabilities constituting the quantum Boltzmann distribution, $P^B_n \propto e^{-E_n/kT}$, be derived from a requirement that the quantum configuration-space distribution for a system in thermal equilibrium be very similar to the corresponding classical distribution? It is certainly to be expected that the quantum distribution in configuration space will approach the classical distribution as the temperature approaches infinity, and a well-known equation derived from the Boltzmann distribution shows that this is generically the case. Here we ask whether one can reason in the opposite direction, that is, from quantum-classical agreement to the Boltzmann probabilities. For two of the simple examples we consider---a particle in a one-dimensional box and a simple harmonic oscillator---this approach leads to probability distributions that provably approach the Boltzmann probabilities at high temperature, in the sense that the Kullback-Leibler divergence between the distributions approaches zero.