Related papers: The role of quantum coherence in non-equilibrium e…

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…

The work done when a system at thermal equilibrium is externally driven by a unitary control parameter leads to irreversible entropy production. The entropy produced can be thought of as a combination of coherence generation and a…

Exploiting the relative entropy of coherence, we isolate the coherent contribution in the energetics of a driven non-equilibrium quantum system. We prove that a division of the irreversible work can be made into a coherent and incoherent…

The entropy produced when a quantum system is driven away from equilibrium can be decomposed in two parts, one related with populations and the other with quantum coherences. The latter is usually based on the so-called relative entropy of…

Recent studies have pointed out the intrinsic dependence of figures of merit of thermodynamic relevance -- such as work, heat and entropy production -- on the amount of quantum coherences that is made available to a system. However, whether…

The second law of thermodynamics can be expressed in terms of entropy production, which can be used to quantify the degree of irreversibility of a process. In this Chapter, we consider the standard scenario of open quantum systems, where a…

We consider a quantum spin system consisting of a finite subsystem connected to infinite reservoirs at different temperatures. In this setup we define nonequilibrium steady states and prove that the rate of entropy production in such states…

Entropy production is a key quantity in any finite-time thermodynamic process. It is intimately tied with the fundamental laws of thermodynamics, embodying a tool to extend thermodynamic considerations all the way to non-equilibrium…

The entropy production rate is a key quantity in non-equilibrium thermodynamics of both classical and quantum processes. No universal theory of entropy production is available to date, which hinders progress towards its full grasping. By…

This paper discusses entropy production in nonequilibrium steady states for infinite quantum spin systems. Rigorous results have been obtained recently in this area, but a physical discussion shows that some questions of principle remain to…

The characterization of irreversibility in general quantum processes is an open problem of increasing techno- logical relevance. Yet, the tools currently available to this aim are mostly limited to the assessment of dynamics induced by…

For classical nonequilibrium systems, the separation of the total entropy production into the adiabatic and nonadiabatic contributions is useful for understanding irreversibility in nonequilibrium thermodynamics. In this article, we…

We report the experimental quantification of the contribution to non-equilibrium entropy production that stems from the quantum coherence content in the initial state of a qubit exposed to both coherent driving and dissipation. Our…

Entropy production quantifies the amount of irreversibility of a physical process, leading to fundamental bounds for thermodynamic quantities. It captures the inability to run a physical system forward and then backward, bringing it to the…

Irreversibility is a fundamental concept with important implications at many levels. It pinpoints the fundamental difference between the intrinsically reversible microscopic equations of motion and the unidirectional arrow of time that…

Entropy production is a fundamental concept in nonequilibrium thermodynamics, providing a direct measure of the irreversibility inherent in any physical process. In this work, we investigate in steady-state the enhancement of…

We consider conservative quantum evolutions possibly interrupted by macroscopic measurements. When started in a nonequilibrium state, the resulting path-space measure is not time-reversal invariant and the weight of time-reversal breaking…

One of the major goals of quantum thermodynamics is the characterization of irreversibility and its consequences in quantum processes. Here, we discuss how entropy production provides a quantification of the irreversibility in open quantum…

Nonequilibrium steady-state currents, unlike their equilibrium counterparts, continuously dissipate energy into their physical surroundings leading to entropy production and time-reversal symmetry breaking. This letter discusses these…

Understanding thermodynamics far from equilibrium at the quantum scale remains a fundamental challenge, particularly in the presence of quantum coherence. Here we develop a first-principles framework for nonequilibrium quantum…