Related papers: An Exponential Bound in the Quest for Absolute Zer…
Quantum criticality, being important as an indicator of new quantum matters emerging, is known to occur only at zero or low temperature. We find that a quantum probe, if its coherence time is long, can detect quantum criticality at…
In this article we use optimal control to maximize the efficiency of a quantum heat engine executing the Otto cycle in the presence of external noise. We optimize the engine performance for both amplitude and phase noise. In the case of…
Controlling the temperature of nano-scale quantum systems is becoming increasingly important in the efforts to develop thermal devices such as quantum heat valves, heat engines, and refrigerators, and to explore fundamental concepts in…
Feedback cooling plays a critical role in stabilizing quantum systems and achieving low temperatures, where a key question is to determine the fundamental thermodynamic limits on cooling performance. We establish a fundamental bound on…
It is "conventional wisdom" that the uncertainty of local temperature measurements on equilibrium systems diverges exponentially fast as their temperature $T$ drops to zero. In contrast, some exactly solvable models showcase a more benign…
According to the Nernst theorem or, equivalently, the third law of thermodynamics, the absolute zero temperature is not attainable. Starting with an initial positive temperature, we show that there exist solutions to a Kelvin-Voigt model…
Cooling quantum systems is arguably one of the most important thermodynamic tasks connected to modern quantum technologies and an interesting question from a foundational perspective. It is thus of no surprise that many different…
The rate of temperature decrease of a cooled quantum bath is studied as its temperature is reduced to the absolute zero. The III-law of thermodynamics is then quantified dynamically by evaluating the characteristic exponent {\zeta} of the…
In this paper we use optimal control to design minimum-time adiabatic-like paths for the expansion of a quantum piston. Under realistic experimental constraints, we calculate the minimum expansion time and compare it with that obtained from…
Standard statistical thermodynamic views of temperature fluctuations predict a magnitude $(\sqrt{<(\Delta T)^2>}/T)\approx\sqrt{(k_B/C)}$ for a system with heat capacity $C$. The extent to which low temperatures can be well defined is…
A reciprocating quantum refrigerator is studied 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, then there is a minimum…
A short introduction on quantum thermodynamics is given and three new topics are discussed: 1) Maximal work extraction from a finite quantum system. The thermodynamic prediction fails and a new, general result is derived, the ``ergotropy''.…
Critical phenomena at finite temperature underpin a broad range of physical systems, yet their study remains challenging due to computational bottlenecks near phase transitions. Quantum annealers have attracted significant interest as a…
The extension of thermodynamics into the quantum regime has received much attention in recent years. A primary objective of current research is to find thermodynamic tasks which can be enhanced by quantum mechanical effects. With this goal…
The quantum-mechanical and thermodynamic properties of a 3-level molecular cooling cycle are derived. An inadequacy of earlier models is rectified in accounting for the spontaneous emission and absorption associated with the coupling to the…
The quantum thermodynamic property of the fractional damping system is investigated extensively. A fractional power-law decaying entropy function is revealed which presents another evidence for the validity of the third law of…
High-precision low-temperature thermometry is a challenge for experimental quantum physics and quantum sensing. Here we consider a thermometer modelled by a dynamically-controlled multilevel quantum probe in contact with a bath. Dynamical…
A paradigm shift in quantum thermometry is proposed. To date, thermometry has relied on local estimation, which is useful to reduce statistical fluctuations once the temperature is very well known. In order to estimate temperatures in cases…
A reciprocating quantum refrigerator is analyzed with the intention to study the limitations imposed by external noise. In particular we focus on the behavior of the refrigerator when it approaches the absolute zero. The cooling cycle is…
We consider a quantum system consisting of a regular chain of elementary subsystems with nearest neighbor interactions and assume that the total system is in a canonical state with temperature $T$. We analyze under what condition the state…