Related papers: Steady state entanglement beyond thermal limits

Very recently [Phys. Rev. E 82, 021921 (2010)] a simple mechanism was presented by which a molecule subjected to forced oscillations, out of thermal equilibrium, can maintain quantum entanglement between two of its quantum degrees of…

Quantum open systems evolve according to completely positive, trace preserving maps acting on the density operator, which can equivalently be unraveled in term of so-called quantum trajectories. These stochastic sequences of pure states…

We investigate the thermodynamic constraints on the pivotal task of entanglement generation using out-of-equilibrium states through a model-independent framework with minimal assumptions. We establish a necessary and sufficient condition…

The thermodynamics of quantum systems coupled to periodically modulated heat baths and work reservoirs is developed. By identifying affinities and fluxes, the first and second law are formulated consistently. In the linear response regime,…

Quantum thermodynamics supplies a consistent description of quantum heat engines and refrigerators up to the level of a single few level system coupled to the environment. Once the environment is split into three;a hot, cold and work…

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…

We consider thermal relaxation process of a quantum system attached to a single or multiple reservoirs. Quantifying the degree of irreversibility by entropy production, we prove that the irreversibility of the thermal relaxation is…

Quantum mechanical entanglement can exist in noisy open quantum systems at high temperature. A simple mechanism, where system particles are randomly reset to some standard initial state, can counteract the deteriorating effect of…

We study the entanglement generated in the steady state of two interacting qubits coupled to thermal reservoirs. We show that the amount of steady-state entanglement can be enhanced by the presence of a third thermal reservoir which is…

Thermodynamic force and irreversible current are the foundational concepts of classical nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Entropy production rate is provided by their product in classical systems, ranging from mesoscopic to macroscopic…

It is a central question in quantum thermodynamics to determine how irreversible is a process that transforms an initial state $\rho$ to a final state $\sigma$, and whether such irreversibility can be thought of as a useful resource. For…

We explore the fundamental limits on thermodynamic irreversibility when cooling a quantum system in the presence of a finite-size reservoir. First, we prove that for any non-interacting $n$-particle reservoir, the entropy production…

Thermodynamics plays an important role both in the foundations of physics and in technological applications. An operational perspective adopted in recent years is to formulate it as a quantum resource theory. At the core of this theory is…

In recent years it has been found that quantum systems can posses entanglement in equilibrium thermal states provided temperature is low enough. In the present work we explore a possibility of having entanglement in nonequilibrium…

Optimal engine performances are accomplished by quantum effects. Here we explore two routes towards ideal engines, namely (1) quantum systems that operate as hybrid machines being able to perform more than one useful task and (2) the…

From black hole thermodynamics, the Bekenstein bound has been proposed as a universal thermal entropy bound. It has been further generalized to an entanglement entropy bound which is valid even in a quantum system. In a quantumly entangled…

Dissipative quantum systems are frequently described within the framework of the so-called "system-plus-reservoir" approach. In this work we assign their description to the Maximum Entropy Formalism and compare the resulting thermodynamic…

Engines are systems and devices that convert one form of energy into another, typically into a more useful form that can perform work. In the classical setup, physical, chemical, and biological engines largely involve the conversion of heat…

There exist zero-temperature states in quantum many-body systems that are fully factorized, thereby possessing vanishing entanglement, and hence being of no use as resource in quantum information processing tasks. Such states can become…

Thermodynamics is a branch of science blessed by an unparalleled combination of generality of scope and formal simplicity. Based on few natural assumptions together with the four laws, it sets the boundaries between possible and impossible…