Related papers: From single-shot towards general work extraction i…
Thermalization processes degrade the states of any working medium, turning any initial state into a passive state from which no work can be extracted. Recently, it has been shown that this degradation can be avoided if two identical…
We introduce the resource-theoretic free energy of a quantum channel as the maximal work extractable from the channel as its output equilibrates to a thermal state and its reference system remains locally intact. It is proportional to the…
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…
Thermodynamics imposes restrictions on what state transformations are possible. In the macroscopic limit of asymptotically many independent copies of a state---as for instance in the case of an ideal gas---the possible transformations…
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,…
We study the maximal amount of energy that can be extracted from a finite quantum system by means of projective measurements. For this quantity we coin the expression "metrotropy" $\mathcal{M}$, in analogy with "ergotropy" $\mathcal{W}$,…
The presence of correlations in the input state of a non-interacting many-body quantum system can lead to an increase in the amount of work we can extract from it under global unitary processes (ergotropy). The present work explore such…
Given the evolution of an arbitrary open quantum system, we formulate a general and unambiguous method to separate the internal energy change of the system into an entropy-related contribution and a part causing no entropy change,…
We put forward a physical model of a uniformly accelerated Unruh-DeWitt battery and use quantum work extraction as a probe to witness the thermal nature of the Unruh effect in a high dimensional Minkowski spacetime. By means of the open…
Thermodynamics is based on a coarse-grained approach, from which its fundamental variables emerge, effectively erasing the complicate details of the microscopic dynamics within a macroscopic system. The strength of Thermodynamics lies in…
We present a new proposal for distinguishing heat from work based on a control-theoretic observability decomposition. We derive a Hermitian operator representing instantaneous dissipation of observable energy, and suggest a generalization…
In developing quantum science and technologies, it is essential to demonstrate the so-called quantum advantages, which are performances that can be achieved only with the assistance of quantum resources. Most of the time, different quantum…
This work reports the functioning of a single atom energy-conversion device, operating either as a quantum engine or a refrigerator, coupled to a quantum load. The "working fluid" is comprised of two optical levels of a single ion, and the…
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…
We study the quantum thermodynamics of a coherent macroscopic electromagnetic field (laser) coupled to a two-level system (qubit) near resonance, from weak to strong driving regimes. This combined system is, in turn, weakly coupled to a…
Modern technologies could soon make it possible to investigate the operation cycles of quantum heat engines by counting the photons that are emitted and absorbed by their working systems. Using the quantum jump approach to open-system…
We study work extraction from the Dicke model achieved using simple unitary cyclic transformations keeping into account both a non optimal unitary protocol, and the energetic cost of creating the initial state. By analyzing the role of…
We analyse the nature of the statistics of the work done on or by a quantum many-body system brought out of equilibrium. We show that, for the sudden quench and for an initial state which commutes with the initial Hamiltonian, it is…
Thermodynamics and information have intricate interrelations. Often thermodynamics is considered to be the logical premise to justify that information is physical - through Landauer's principle -, thereby also linking information and…
We investigate the finite time thermodynamics of a single-level fermion system interacting with a thermal reservoir through a tunneling junction. The optimal protocol to extract the maximum work from the system when moving the single energy…