RT Journal Article T1 Irreversible processes without energy dissipation in an isolated Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model A1 Puebla, Ricardo A1 Relaño Pérez, Armando AB For a certain class of isolated quantum systems, we report the existence of irreversible processes in which the energy is not dissipated. After a closed cycle in which the initial energy distribution is fully recovered, the expectation value of a symmetry-breaking observable changes from a value differing from zero in the initial state to zero in the final state. This entails the unavoidable loss of a certain amount of information and constitutes a source of irreversibility. We show that the von Neumann entropy of time-averaged equilibrium states increases in the same magnitude as a consequence of the process. We support this result by means of numerical calculations in an experimentally feasible system, the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model. PB American Physical Society SN 1539-3755 YR 2015 FD 2015-07-02 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/24129 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/24129 LA eng NO © 2015 American Physical Society. We thank O. Marty for useful discussions. The work was supported by a grant by the Spanish Government for research Project No. FIS2012-35316, an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, the EU Integrating Project SIQS, and the EU STREP project EQUAM. Part of the calculations of this work were performed in the high-capacity cluster for physics, funded in part by Universidad Complutense de Madrid and in part with Feder funding. This is a contribution to the Campus of International Excellence of Moncloa, CEI Moncloa. NO Gobierno de España NO Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Professorship (Alemania) NO Integrating Project SIQS (UE) NO STREP project EQUAM (UE) NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) NO Fondos Feder (UE) NO Unión Europea (UE) DS Docta Complutense RD 6 abr 2025