Related papers: Work, heat and entropy production in bipartite qua…
The definition of heat in quantum mechanics is ambiguous. Complications arise in particular when the coupling between a quantum system and a thermal environment is non-negligible, as the boundary between the two becomes blurred, making the…
Recently, Zhang {\em et al.} [PRA, {\bf 75}, 062102 (2007)] extended Kieu's interesting work on the quantum Otto engine [PRL, {\bf 93}, 140403 (2004)] by considering as working substance a bipartite quantum system $AB$ composed of…
Entropy production is a fundamental concept that plays a crucial role in the second law of thermodynamics and the measure of irreversibility. It imposes rigorous constraints on the kinds of transformations allowed in thermodynamic…
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…
We present a detailed thermodynamic analysis of a three-level quantum heat engine coupled continuously to hot and cold reservoirs. The system is driven by an oscillating external field and is described by the Markovian quantum master…
We consider thermal machines powered by locally equilibrium reservoirs that share classical or quantum correlations. The reservoirs are modelled by the so-called collisional model or repeated interactions model. In our framework, two…
The Brownian dynamics of the density operator for a quantum system interacting with a classical heat bath is described using a stochastic, non-linear Liouville equation obtained from a variational principle. The environment's degrees of…
Thermodynamics of quantum systems out-of-equilibrium is very important for the progress of quantum technologies, however, the effects of many body interactions and their interplay with temperature, different drives and dynamical regimes is…
Information on quantum systems can be obtained only when they are open (or opened) in relation to a certain environment. As a matter of fact, realistic open quantum systems appear in very different shape. We sketch the theoretical…
If the von Neumann equation is modified by time dependent statistical weights, the time rate of entropy, the entropy exchange and production of a Schottky system are derived whose Hamiltonian does not contain the interaction with the…
The evaluation of the specific heat of an open, damped quantum system is a subtle issue. One possible route is based on the thermodynamic partition function which is the ratio of the partition functions of system plus bath and of the bath…
We study the energy exchange between two bosonic systems that interact via bilinear transformations in the mode operators. The first mode is considered as the thermodynamic system, while the second is regarded as the bath. This work finds…
Entropy generation in quantum sytems is tied to the existence of a nonclassical environment (heat bath or other) with which the system interacts. The continuous `measuring' of the open system by its environment induces decoherence of its…
We present a scheme to evaluate thermodynamic variables for a system coupled to a heat bath under a time-dependent external force using the quasi-static Helmholtz energy from the numerically "exact" hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM).…
Close to equilibrium, the exchange of particles and heat between macroscopic systems at different temperatures and different chemical potentials is known to be governed by a matrix of transport coefficients which is positive and symmetric.…
Von Neumann entropy rate for open quantum systems is, in general, written in terms of entropy production and entropy flow rates, encompassing the second law of thermodynamics. When the open-quantum-system evolution corresponds to a quantum…
We consider a system of two Brownian particles (say A and B), coupled to each other via harmonic potential of stiffness constant $k$. Particle-A is connected to two heat baths of constant temperatures $T_1$ and $T_2$, and particle-B is…
The theory of quantum thermodynamics investigates how the concepts of heat, work, and temperature can be carried over to the quantum realm, where fluctuations and randomness are fundamentally unavoidable. These lecture notes provide an…
We examine the elements of the balance equation of entropy in open quantum evolutions and their response as we go from a Markovian to a non-Markovian situation. In particular, we look at the heat current and entropy production rate in the…
Heat and work are fundamental concepts for thermodynamical systems. When these are scaled down to the quantum level they require appropriate embeddings. Here we show that the dependence of the particle spectrum on system size giving rise to…