Related papers: Complete positivity and thermodynamics in a driven…

We consider two non-interacting systems embedded in a heat bath. If they remain dynamically independent, physical inconsistencies are avoided only if the single-system reduced dynamics is completely positive also beyond the weak-coupling…

The quantum thermodynamic behavior of small systems is investigated in presence of finite quantum dissipation. We consider the archetype cases of a damped harmonic oscillator and a free quantum Brownian particle. A main finding is that…

Starting form a microscopic system-environment model, we construct a quantum dynamical semigroup for the reduced evolution of the open system. The difference between the true system dynamics and its approximation by the semigroup has the…

Feedback control mechanisms are ubiquitous in science and technology, and play an essential role in regulating physical, biological and engineering systems. The standard second law of thermodynamics does not hold in the presence of…

There is a current interest in quantum thermodynamics in the context of open quantum systems. An important issue is the consistency of quantum thermodynamics, in particular the second law of thermodynamics, i.e., the flow of heat from a hot…

We investigate the validity of the generalized second law of thermodynamics, in the cosmological scenario where dark energy interacts with both dark matter and radiation. Calculating separately the entropy variation for each fluid component…

Fluctuations of thermodynamic observables, such as heat and work, contain relevant information on the underlying physical process. These fluctuations are however not taken into account in the traditional laws of thermodynamics. While the…

In a thermodynamical process, the dissipation or production of entropy can only be positive or zero according to the second law of thermodynamics. However the laws of thermodynamics are applicable to large systems in the thermodynamic…

Quantum dynamics controlled by a time-dependent coupling constant are studied. It is proven that an energy eigenstate expectation value of work done by the system in a quench process cannot exceed the work in the corresponding quasi-static…

The thermodynamics of quantum systems driven out of equilibrium has attracted increasing attention in last the decade, in connection with quantum information and statistical physics, and with a focus on non-classical signatures. While a…

We present a conjugate analysis of two different dark energy models investigating both their agreement with recent data and their thermodynamical properties. The successful match with the data allows to both constrain the model parameters…

In quantum statistical mechanics, equilibrium states have been shown to be the typical states for a system that is entangled with its environment, suggesting a possible identification between thermodynamic and von Neumann entropies. In this…

Extremal principles are fundamental in our interpretation of phenomena in nature. One of the best known examples is the second law of thermodynamics, governing most physical and chemical systems and stating the continuous increase of…

Quantum Thermodynamics is a continuous dialogue between two independent theories: Thermodynamics and Quantum Mechanics. Whenever the two theories addressed the same phenomena new insight has emerged. We follow the dialogue from equilibrium…

We define thermodynamic configurations and identify two primitives of discrete quantum processes between configurations for which heat and work can be defined in a natural way. This allows us to uncover a general second law for any discrete…

Despite its enormous empirical success, the formalism of quantum theory still raises fundamental questions: why is nature described in terms of complex Hilbert spaces, and what modifications of it could we reasonably expect to find in some…

Validity of the mean-field approach to open system dynamics in the optical cavity system is examined. It is rigorously shown that the mean-field approach is justified in the thermodynamic limit. The result is applicable to nonequilibrium…

The thermodynamic framework of repeated interactions is generalized to an arbitrary open quantum system in contact with a heat bath. Based on these findings the theory is then extended to arbitrary measurements performed on the system. This…

Maps that are not completely positive (CP) are often useful to describe the dynamics of open systems. An apparent violation of complete positivity can occur because there are prior correlations of the principal system with the environment,…

This paper is a non-technical, informal presentation of our theory of the second law of thermodynamics as a law that is independent of statistical mechanics and that is derivable solely from certain simple assumptions about adiabatic…