Related papers: Are all Quasi-static Processes Reversible?
Isothermal processes of a finitely extended, driven quantum system in contact with an infinite heat bath are studied from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanics. Notions like heat flux, work and entropy are defined for…
We show for a large class of interacting particle systems that whenever the stationary measure is not reversible for the dynamics, then the mean entropy production in the steady state is strictly positive. This extends to the thermodynamic…
It is a central question in quantum thermodynamics to determine how irreversible is a process that transforms an initial state $\rho$ to a final state $\sigma$, and whether such irreversibility can be thought of as a useful resource. For…
When a small dynamical system that is initially in contact with a heat bath is detached from this heat bath and then caused to undergo a quasi-static adiabatic processes, the statistical distribution of the system's energy differs from that…
According to a well-known principle of thermodynamics, the transfer of heat between two bodies is reversible when their temperatures are infinitesimally close. As we demonstrate, a little-known alternative exists: two bodies with…
A quasi-static process is realized in a purely quantum-mechanical model which is described by oscillator (or particle) systems having relative-phase interactions. Time development of a mixture of two oscillator (or particle) systems which…
The sum of the average work dissipated plus the information gained during a thermodynamic process with discrete feedback must exceed zero. We demonstrate that the minimum value of zero is attained only by feedback-reversible processes that…
Adiabatic (or reversible) processes are the key concept unifying our understanding of thermodynamics and dynamical systems. Reversibility in the thermodynamic sense is understood as entropy-preserving processes, such as in the idealized…
A physical system is called quasi-isolated if it subject to small random uncontrollable perturbations. Such a system is, in general, stochastically unstable. Moreover, its phase-space volume at asymptotically large time expands. This can be…
The entropy production rate is a key quantity in non-equilibrium thermodynamics of both classical and quantum processes. No universal theory of entropy production is available to date, which hinders progress towards its full grasping. By…
We investigate a quasi-adiabatic thermal process for preparing finite-temperature ensembles in the thermodynamic limit. The process gradually transforms a thermal ensemble of a noninteracting system into that of an interacting system of…
Passivity is a fundamental concept in thermodynamics that demands a quantum system's energy cannot be lowered by any reversible, unitary process acting on the system. In the limit of many such systems, passivity leads in turn to the concept…
The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy production in macroscopic systems is non-negative, reaching zero only at thermodynamic equilibrium. As a corollary, this implies that the state trajectory of macroscopic systems is…
There is a relation between the irreversibility of thermodynamic processes as expressed by the breaking of time-reversal symmetry, and the entropy production in such processes. We explain on an elementary mathematical level the relations…
Unconventional cycles provide a useful didactic resource to discuss the second law of thermodynamics applied to thermal motors and their efficiency. In most cases they involve a negative slope, linear process that presents an adiabatic…
We study a process of heat transfer between a body of heat capacity C(T) and a sequence of N heat reservoirs, with temperatures equally spaced between an initial temperature T_0 and a final temperature T_N. The body and the heat reservoirs…
Irreversibility is a fundamental concept with important implications at many levels. It pinpoints the fundamental difference between the intrinsically reversible microscopic equations of motion and the unidirectional arrow of time that…
We consider thermal relaxation process of a quantum system attached to a single or multiple reservoirs. Quantifying the degree of irreversibility by entropy production, we prove that the irreversibility of the thermal relaxation is…
The unavoidable irreversible losses of power in a heat engine are found to be of quantum origin. Following thermodynamic tradition a model quantum heat engine operating by the Otto cycle is analyzed. The working medium of the model is…
Entropy production is a key quantity in any finite-time thermodynamic process. It is intimately tied with the fundamental laws of thermodynamics, embodying a tool to extend thermodynamic considerations all the way to non-equilibrium…