English

Heat capacity of periodically driven two-level systems

Statistical Mechanics 2024-08-27 v2

Abstract

We define the heat capacity for steady periodically driven systems and as an example we compute it for dissipative two-level systems where the energy gap is time-modulated. There, as a function of ambient temperature, the Schottky peak remains the dominant feature. Yet, in contrast with equilibrium, the quasistatic thermal response of a nonequilibrium system also reveals kinetic information present in the transition rates; e.g., the heat capacity depends on the time-symmetric reactivities and changes by the presence of a kinetic barrier. It still vanishes though at absolute zero, in accord with an extended Nernst heat postulate, but at a different rate from the equilibrium case. More generally, we discuss the dependence on driving frequency and amplitude.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2404.19426,
  title  = {Heat capacity of periodically driven two-level systems},
  author = {Elena Rufeil Fiori and Christian Maes},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.19426},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

16 figures, 15 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:11:04.390Z