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Related papers: Extracting work from quantum systems

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We consider locally thermal states (for two qubits) with certain amount of quantum entanglement present between them. Unlike previous protocols we show how work can be extracted by performing local unitary operations on this state by…

The ideas of thermodynamics have proved fruitful in the setting of quantum information theory, in particular the notion that when the allowed transformations of a system are restricted, certain states of the system become useful resources…

Free energy fixes the maximum work of a thermodynamic process once the state and Hamiltonian are specified. A work-extraction task asks a different question: how much average work can a single device realize across several preparations and…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-05-06 Sumit Rout , Aravinth Balaji Ravichandran , Paweł Horodecki , Anubhav Chaturvedi

Resource theories are a generic approach used to manage any valuable resource, such as entanglement, purity, and asymmetry. Such frameworks are characterized by two main elements: a set of predefined (free) operations and states, that one…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-05-01 Nelly Ng , Mischa P. Woods

Work and quantum correlations are two fundamental resources in thermodynamics and quantum information theory. In this work we study how to use correlations among quantum systems to optimally store work. We analyse this question for isolated…

Originally formulated for macroscopic machines, the laws of thermodynamics were recently shown to hold for quantum systems coupled to ideal sources of work (external classical fields) and heat (systems at equilibrium). Ongoing efforts have…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-06-29 Cyril Elouard , Camille Lombard Latune

Quantum thermodynamics can be cast as a resource theory by considering free access to a heat bath, thereby viewing the Gibbs state at a fixed temperature as a free state and hence any other state as a resource. Here, we consider a…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-10-09 Uttam Singh , Michael G. Jabbour , Zacharie Van Herstraeten , Nicolas J. Cerf

We study how Thomson's formulation of the second law: no work is extracted from an equilibrium ensemble by a cyclic process, emerges in the quantum situation through the averaging over fluctuations of work. The latter concept is carefully…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 A. E. Allahverdyan , Th. M. Nieuwenhuizen

We introduce a thermodynamic work extraction task that describes the energy storage enhancement of quantum systems, which is naturally related to quantum battery's charging process. This task induces majorisation-like conditions that…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-10-24 Chung-Yun Hsieh , Manuel Gessner

We consider the Non-Equilibrium Steady State induced by two infinite quantum thermal reservoirs at different temperatures and derive an inequality giving the upper bound of the work extracted by cyclic operations. This upper bound tends to…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2024-06-19 Kazuki Yamaga

We revisit the problem of work extraction from a system in contact with a heat bath to a work storage system, and the reverse problem of state formation from a thermal system state in single-shot quantum thermodynamics. A physically…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-12-18 Shang-Yung Wang

Work extraction from the Gibbs ensemble by a cyclic operation is impossible, as represented by the second law of thermodynamics. On the other hand, the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) states that just a single energy eigenstate…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-04-03 Kazuya Kaneko , Eiki Iyoda , Takahiro Sagawa

Active states, from which work can be extracted by time-dependent perturbations, are an important resource for quantum thermodynamics in the absence of heat baths. Here we characterize this resource, establishing a resource theory that…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-04-19 Swati , Uttam Singh , Giulio Chiribella

We analyze work extraction protocols using the long-lived quantum coherence of a three-level quantum system, which is coupled to a thermal bath through dipole-monopole interactions. We identify situations where persistent quantum coherence…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-08-05 Wenjing Chen , Si-Wei Han , Xiaoshan Feng , Jun Feng

We treat a quantum mechanical system with certain general properties which are expected to be common in macroscopic quantum systems. Starting from a PURE initial state (which may not describe an equilibrium) in which energy is mildly…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 Hal Tasaki

Extracting useful work from quantum systems is a fundamental problem in quantum thermodynamics. In scenarios where rapid protocols are desired -- whether due to practical constraints or deliberate design choices -- a fundamental trade-off…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-04-23 Shoki Sugimoto , Takahiro Sagawa , Ryusuke Hamazaki

Understanding whether uniquely quantum features can provide concrete advantages in thermodynamic processes is a central objective of quantum thermodynamics. A key challenge is quantifying how different forms of non-classicality can be…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-03-06 Luis Pedro Garcıa-Pintos , Tanmoy Biswas , Chandan Datta

The second law of thermodynamics, formulated as an ultimate bound on the maximum extractable work, has been rigorously derived in multiple scenarios. However, the unavoidable limitations that emerge due to the lack of control on small…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2016-04-27 H. Wilming , R. Gallego , J. Eisert

Extracting work from a physical system is one of the cornerstones of quantum thermodynamics. The extractable work, as quantified by ergotropy, necessitates a complete description of the quantum system. This is significantly more challenging…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-10-30 Shantanav Chakraborty , Siddhartha Das , Arnab Ghorui , Soumyabrata Hazra , Uttam Singh

Quantum thermal states are known to be passive, as required by the second law of thermodynamics. This paper investigates the potential for work extraction by coupling a thermal bath to a qubit of either spin, fermionic, or topological type,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-04-29 Jhh-Jing Hong , Feng-Li Lin