Related papers: Quantum Confinement and Negative Heat Capacity
Some features of nonadiabatic electron heat pumps are studied and connected to general questions of quantum cooling. Inelastic reflection is shown to contribute to heating if the external driving signal is time-symmetric. The quantum of…
Thermodynamics is a branch of science blessed by an unparalleled combination of generality of scope and formal simplicity. Based on few natural assumptions together with the four laws, it sets the boundaries between possible and impossible…
The quantum-mechanical and thermodynamic properties of a 3-level molecular cooling cycle are derived. An inadequacy of earlier models is rectified in accounting for the spontaneous emission and absorption associated with the coupling to the…
The relationship between thermodynamics and statistical physics is valid in the thermodynamic limit - when the number of particles becomes very large. Here, we study thermodynamics in the opposite regime - at both the nano scale, and when…
In the classical world, temperature is a measure of how hot or cold a physical object is. We never find a physical system which can be both hot and cold at the same time. Here, we show that for a quantum system, it is possible to have…
One of the principal objectives of quantum thermodynamics is to explore quantum effects and their potential beneficial role in thermodynamic tasks like work extraction or refrigeration. So far, even though several papers have already shown…
Recent progress in the synthesis and processing of nano-structured materials and systems calls for an improved understanding of thermal properties on small length scales. In this context, the question whether thermodynamics and, in…
Advantages of quantum effects in several technologies, such as computation and communication, have already been well appreciated, and some devices, such as quantum computers and communication links, exhibiting superiority to their classical…
We consider blocks of quantum spins in a chain at thermal equilibrium, focusing on their properties from a thermodynamical perspective. Whereas in classical systems the temperature behaves as an intensive magnitude, a deviation from this…
When a non-integrable system evolves out of equilibrium for a long time, local observables are expected to attain stationary expectation values, independent of the details of the initial state. However, intriguing experimental results with…
The rate of temperature decrease of a cooled quantum bath is studied as its temperature is reduced to the absolute zero. The III-law of thermodynamics is then quantified dynamically by evaluating the characteristic exponent {\zeta} of the…
According to thermodynamics, the specific heat of Boltzmannian short-range interacting systems is a positive quantity. Less intuitive properties are instead displayed by systems characterized by long-range interactions. In that case, the…
Quantum decoherence is seen as an undesired source of irreversibility that destroys quantum resources. Quantum coherences seem to be a property that vanishes at thermodynamic equilibrium. Away from equilibrium, quantum coherences challenge…
The example provided in the comment [arXiv:0803.2241] concerns a situation where the system is initially at negative temperature. It is known that in such cases the Law of Entropy Decrease holds. Nevertheless, this does not challenge the…
We consider a generalisation of thermodynamics that deals with multiple conserved quantities at the level of individual quantum systems. Each conserved quantity, which, importantly, need not commute with the rest, can be extracted and…
We consider a soluble model of multifragmentation which is similar in spirit to many models which have been used to fit intermediate energy heavy ion collision data. In this model $c_v$ is always positive but for finite nuclei $c_p$ can be…
An autonomous quantum thermal machine comprising a trapped atom or ion placed inside an optical cavity is proposed and analysed. Such a machine can operate as a heat engine whose working medium is the quantised atomic motion, or as an…
We study two small quantum systems coupled to the same reservoir which is in thermal equilibrium. By studying the particle density and the energy density in the two systems before and after they contact each other, we find that the two…
Negative specific heat is a dramatic phenomenon where processes decrease in temperature when adding energy. It has been observed in gravo-thermal collapse of globular clusters. We now report finding this phenomenon in bundles of nearly…
We consider continuously monitored quantum systems and introduce definitions of work and heat along individual quantum trajectories that are valid for coherent superpositions of energy eigenstates. We use these quantities to extend the…