Related papers: The most elementary heat to work conversion: work …
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…
Thermodynamics and information have intricate inter-relations. The justification of the fact that information is physical, is done by inter-linking information and thermodynamics - through Landauer's principle. This modern approach towards…
Quantum states that can yield work in a cyclical Hamiltonian process form one of the primary resources in the context of quantum thermodynamics. Conversely, states whose average energy cannot be lowered by unitary transformations are called…
Even photosynthesis -- the most basic natural phenomenon underlying Life on Earth -- involves the non-trivial processing of excitations at the pico- and femtosecond scales during light-harvesting. The desire to understand such natural…
An interesting class of physical systems, including those associated with life, demonstrates the ability to hold thermalization at bay and perpetuate states of high free-energy compared to a local environment. In this work, we study quantum…
We consider a class of quantum heat engines consisting of two subsystems interacting via a unitary transformation and coupled to two separate baths at different temperatures $T_h > T_c$. The purpose of the engine is to extract work due to…
We investigate and ascertain the ideal inputs to any finite-time thermodynamic process. We demonstrate that the expectation values of entropy flow, heat, and work can all be determined via Hermitian observables of the initial state. These…
We investigate catalysis in the framework of elementary thermal operations, leveraging the distinct features of such operations to illuminate catalytic dynamics. As groundwork, we establish new technical tools that enhance the computability…
We consider the amount of work which can be extracted from a heat bath using a bipartite state shared by two parties. In general it is less then the amount of work extractable when one party is in possession of the entire state. We derive…
We study a minimal model for charging a quantum battery consisting of a two-level system (TLS) acting as a charger, coupled to a harmonic oscillator that serves as the quantum battery. A single-photon quantum pulse of light excites the TLS,…
We introduce a model of an active quantum particle and discuss its properties. The particle has a set of internal states that mediate exchanges of heat with external reservoirs. Heat is then converted into motion by means of a spin-orbit…
Passivity is a fundamental concept that constitutes a necessary condition for any quantum system to attain thermodynamic equilibrium, and for a notion of temperature to emerge. While extensive work has been done that exploits this, the…
Quantum measurement is ultimately a physical process, resulting from an interaction between the measured system and a measuring apparatus. Considering the physical process of measurement within a thermodynamic context naturally raises the…
A central building block of a heat engine is the working fluid, which mediates the conversion of heat into work. In nanoscale heat engines, the working fluid can be a quantum system whose behavior and dynamics are non-classical. A…
We show that a cyclic unitary process can extract work from the thermodynamic equilibrium state of an engineered quantum dissipative process. Systems in the equilibrium states of these processes serve as batteries, storing energy. The…
In quantum physics, two prototypical model systems stand out due to their wide range of applications. These are the two-level system (TLS) and the harmonic oscillator. The former is often an ideal model for confined charge or spin systems…
Quantum measurement of a system can change its mean energy, as well as entropy. A selective measurement (classical or quantum) can be used as a "Maxwell's demon" to power a single-temperature heat engine, by decreasing the entropy. Quantum…
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…
We report on the coherent quantum state transfer from a two-level atomic system to a single photon. Entanglement between a single photon (signal) and a two-component ensemble of cold rubidium atoms is used to project the quantum memory…
We determine the maximal work extractable via a cyclic Hamiltonian process from a positive-temperature ($T>0$) microcanonical state of a $N\gg 1$ spin bath. The work is much smaller than the total energy of the bath, but can be still much…