The Shannon-McMillan theorem for ergodic quantum lattice systems

We formulate and prove a quantum Shannon-McMillan theorem. The theorem demonstrates the significance of the von Neumann entropy for translation invariant ergodic quantum spin systems on ℤ^ν-lattices: the entropy gives the logarithm of the essential number of eigenvectors of the system on large boxes. The one-dimensional case covers quantum information sources and is basic for coding theorems.