Related papers: An Exponential Bound in the Quest for Absolute Zer…
The scaling of the optimal cooling power of a reciprocating quantum refrigerator is sought as a function of the cold bath temperature as $T_c \to 0$. The working medium consists of noninteracting particles in a harmonic potential. Two…
A first principle reciprocating quantum refrigerator is investigated with the purpose of determining the limitations of cooling to absolute zero. We find that if the energy spectrum of the working medium possesses an uncontrollable gap,…
While the ability to measure low temperatures accurately in quantum systems is important in a wide range of experiments, the possibilities and the fundamental limits of quantum thermometry are not yet fully understood theoretically. Here we…
In this article we use geometric optimal control to completely solve the problem of minimum-time transitions between thermal equilibrium and fixed average energy states of the quantum parametric oscillator, a system which has been…
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…
Absolute temperature, the fundamental temperature scale in thermodynamics, is usually bound to be positive. Under special conditions, however, negative temperatures - where high-energy states are more occupied than low-energy states - are…
We consider a question motivated by the third law of thermodynamics: can there be a local temperature arbitrarily close to absolute zero in a nonequilibrium quantum system? We consider nanoscale quantum conductors with the source reservoir…
We discuss the application of techniques of quantum estimation theory and quantum metrology to thermometry. The ultimate limit to the precision at which the temperature of a system at thermal equilibrium can be determined is related to the…
Precise thermometry is of wide importance in science and technology in general and in quantum systems in particular. Here, we investigate fundamental precision limits for thermometry on cold quantum systems, taking into account constraints…
The third law of thermodynamics, also known as the Nernst unattainability principle, puts a fundamental bound on how close a system, whether classical or quantum, can be cooled to a temperature near to absolute zero. On the other hand, a…
The third law of thermodynamics has a controversial past and a number of formulations due to Planck, Einstein, and Nernst. It's most accepted version, the unattainability principle, states that "any thermodynamic process cannot reach the…
We carefully examine the thermodynamic consequences of the repeated partial projection model for coupling a quantum system to an arbitrary series of environments under feedback control. This paper provides observational definitions of heat…
The Principle of Unattainability rules out the attainment of absolute zero temperature by any finite physical means, no matter how idealised they could be. Nevertheless, we clarify that the Third Law of Thermodynamics, as defined by…
In this article, we use geometric optimal control to completely solve the problem of minimum-time transitions between thermal equilibrium states of the quantum parametric oscillator, which finds applications in various physical contexts. We…
A minimal model of a quantum refrigerator (QR), i.e. a periodically phase-flipped two-level system permanently coupled to a finite-capacity bath (cold bath) and an infinite heat dump (hot bath), is introduced and used to investigate the…
We study dynamic cooling, where an externally driven two-level system is cooled via reservoir, a quantum system with initial canonical equilibrium state. We obtain explicitly the minimal possible temperature $T_{\rm min}>0$ reachable for…
We study the fundamental limitations of cooling to absolute zero for a qubit, interacting with a single mode of the electromagnetic field. Our results show that the dynamical Casimir effect, which is unavoidable in any finite-time…
Controlling and measuring the temperature in different devices and platforms that operate in the quantum regime is, without any doubt, essential for any potential application. In this review, we report the most recent theoretical…
Thermodynamics connects our knowledge of the world to our capability to manipulate and thus to control it. This crucial role of control is exemplified by the third law of thermodynamics, Nernst's unattainability principle, which states that…
The free energy of a quantum oscillator in an arbitrary heat bath at a temperature T is given by a "remarkable formula" which involves only a single integral. This leads to a corresponding simple result for the entropy. The low temperature…