Related papers: Non-equilibrium quantum systems: Divergence betwee…
The evolution of a quasi-isolated finite quantum system from a nonequilibrium initial state is considered. The condition of quasi-isolation allows for the description of the system dynamics on the general basis, without specifying the…
The concept of work is basic for statistical thermodynamics. To gain a fuller understanding of work and its (quantum) features, it needs to be represented as an average of a fluctuating quantity. Here I focus on the work done between two…
The study of the physical properties of open quantum systems is at the heart of many present investigations which aim to describe their dynamical evolution, on theoretical ground and through physical realizations. Here we develop a…
Describing matter at near absolute zero temperature requires understanding a system's quantum ground state and the low energy excitations around it, the quasiparticles, which are thermally populated by the system's contact to a heat bath.…
This thesis is devoted to the theoretical study of slow thermodynamic processes in non-equilibrium stochastic systems. Its main result is a physically and mathematically consistent construction of relevant thermodynamic quantities in the…
A brief review is given of the present state of an approach to consistency between basic quantum mechanics and a unique macroscopic reality, with no assumption of branching in the state of the universe. The main new idea consists in the…
The dynamics of excitonic energy transfer in molecular complexes triggered by interaction with laser pulses offers a unique window into the underlying physical processes. The absorbed energy moves through the network of interlinked pigments…
Concepts like `typicality' and the `eigenstate thermalization hypothesis' aim at explaining the apparent equilibration of quantum systems, possibly after a very long time. However, these concepts are not concerned with the specific way in…
We offer a systematic account of decomposition of quantum systems into parts. Different decompositions (structures) are mutually linked via the proper linear canonical transformations. Different kinds of structures, as well as their…
Although coarse-grained models have been widely used to explain exotic phenomena in complex fluids, such as droplet formation in living cells, these conventional approaches often fail to capture the intricate microscopic degrees of freedom…
The ultimate precision of any measurement of the temperature of a quantum system is the inverse of the local quantum thermal susceptibility [De Pasquale et al., Nature Communications 7, 12782 (2016)] of the subsystem with whom the…
We consider the ground state of simple quantum systems coupled to an environment. In general the system is entangled with its environment. As a consequence, even at zero temperature, the energy of the system is not sharp: a projective…
Chemical processes in closed systems are poorly controllable since they always relax to equilibrium. Living systems avoid this fate and give rise to a much richer diversity of phenomena by operating under nonequilibrium conditions. Recent…
Nonequilibrium processes of small systems such as molecular machines are ubiquitous in biology, chemistry and physics, but are often challenging to comprehend. In the past two decades, several exact thermodynamic relations of nonequilibrium…
The presence of quantum effects in photosynthetic excitation energy transfer has been intensely debated over the past decade. Nonlinear spectroscopy cannot unambiguously distinguish coherent electronic dynamics from underdamped vibrational…
Interactions between a source of light and atoms are ubiquitous in nature. The study of them is interesting on the fundamental level as well as for applications. They are in the core of Quantum Information Processing tasks and in Quantum…
In systems with long-range interactions, since energy is a non-additive quantity, ensemble inequivalence can arise: it is possible that different statistical ensembles lead to different equilibrium descriptions, even in the thermodynamic…
Quantum thermodynamics allows for the interconversion of quantum coherence and mechanical work. Quantum coherence is thus a potential physical resource for quantum machines. However, formulating a general nonequilibrium thermodynamics of…
We investigate the collective interaction of a multi-atom three-level ladder system with an environmental incoherent reservoir. The exact solution of the master equation that describes such a system of atoms emitting distinguishable or…
Equilibrium statistics of Hamiltonian systems is correctly described by the microcanonical ensemble, whereas canonical ones fail in the most interesting, mostly inhomogeneous, situations like phase separations or away from the thermodynamic…