English

Complete positivity and thermodynamics in a driven open quantum system

Quantum Physics 2015-10-28 v1 Other Condensed Matter

Abstract

While it is well known that complete positivity guarantees the fulfilment of the second law of thermodynamics, its possible violations have never been proposed as a check of the complete positivity of a given open quantum dynamics. We hereby consider an open quantum micro-circuit, effectively describable as a two-level open quantum system, whose asymptotic current might be experimentally accessible. This latter could indeed be used to discriminate between its possible non-completely positive Redfield dynamics and a completely positive one obtained by standard weak-coupling limit techniques, at the same time verifying the fate of the second law of thermodynamics in such a context.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1502.00864,
  title  = {Complete positivity and thermodynamics in a driven open quantum system},
  author = {G. Argentieri and F. Benatti and R. Floreanini and M. Pezzutto},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.00864},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

28 pages, 8 figures, LaTex

R2 v1 2026-06-22T08:20:34.499Z