Explaining the influence of strong coupling in the dynamics of open quantum systems is one of the most challenging issues in the rapidly growing field of quantum thermodynamics. By using a particular definition of heat, we develop a new approach to study thermodynamics in the strong coupling regime, which takes into account quantum resources as coherence and entanglement. We apply the method to calculate the time-dependent thermodynamic properties of a system and an environment interacting via the generalized amplitude-damping channel (GADC). The results indicate that the transient imbalance between heat dissipated and heat absorbed that occurs in the process is responsible for the generation of system-environment entanglement.
@article{arxiv.2104.05952,
title = {Relating Heat and Entanglement in Strong Coupling Thermodynamics},
author = {Bertúlio de Lima Bernardo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.05952},
year = {2021}
}