Related papers: Unconventional cycles, pseudoadiabatics and multip…
Adiabatic (or reversible) processes are the key concept unifying our understanding of thermodynamics and dynamical systems. Reversibility in the thermodynamic sense is understood as entropy-preserving processes, such as in the idealized…
Isothermal processes of a finitely extended, driven quantum system in contact with an infinite heat bath are studied from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanics. Notions like heat flux, work and entropy are defined for…
A quantum thermodynamic cycle with a chiral multiferroic working substance such as $\textrm{LiCu}_{2}\textrm{O}_{2}$ is presented. Shortcuts to adiabaticity are employed to achieve an efficient, finite time quantum thermodynamic cycle which…
The appearance of so-called exceptional points in the complex spectra of non-Hermitian systems is often associated with phenomena that contradict our physical intuition. One example of particular interest is the state-exchange process…
The minimum work principle states that work done on a thermally isolated equilibrium system is minimal for the adiabatically slow (reversible) realization of a given process. This principle, one of the formulations of the second law, is…
The objective of this work is to show that adiabatic processes can be very similar to isothermal ones. First, we show that the criteria for the compatibility of linear-response theory with the Second Law of Thermodynamics for thermally…
The reversible nature of thermodynamical cycles is an idealisation based on the assumption of perfect quasi-static dynamics. As a consequence of this assumption, ideal engines operate at the maximum efficiency but have zero power. Realistic…
We study a quantum Otto cycle that uses a 2-qubit working substance whose Hamiltonian does not commute with itself at different times during unitary strokes. We investigate how the cycle responds to the loss of quantum adiabaticity when…
Exceptional points, the spectral degeneracy points in the complex parameter space, are fundamental to non-Hermitian quantum systems. The dynamics of non-Hermitian systems in the presence of exceptional points differ significantly from those…
We experimentally realize quasistatic adiabatic processes using a single optically-trapped micro- sphere immersed in water whose effective temperature is controlled by an external random electric field. A full energetic characterization of…
This paper is a non-technical, informal presentation of our theory of the second law of thermodynamics as a law that is independent of statistical mechanics and that is derivable solely from certain simple assumptions about adiabatic…
Quantum thermodynamics aims at investigating both the emergence and the limits of the laws of thermodynamics from a quantum mechanical microscopic approach. In this scenario, thermodynamic processes with no heat exchange, namely, adiabatic…
Adiabatic reverse annealing (ARA) is an improvement to conventional quantum annealing (QA) that uses an initial guess at the desired ground state to circumvent problematic phase transitions. Despite encouraging results in the closed-system…
The anomalous dynamical evolution and the crossing of nonadiabatic energy levels are investigated for exactly solvable time-dependent quantum systems through a reverse-engineering scheme. By exploiting a typical driven model, we elucidate…
Quantum decoherence is of primary importance for relaxation to an equilibrium distribution and, accordingly, for equilibrium processes. We demonstrate how coherence breaking implies evolution to a microcanonical distribution…
The origin of predicted and observed anomalies in caloric curves of nuclei and other mesoscopic systems is investigated. It is shown that a straightforward thermodynamical treatment of an evaporating liquid drop leads to a backbending in…
An adiabatic change of parameters along a closed path may interchange the (quasi-)eigenenergies and eigenspaces of a closed quantum system. Such discrepancies induced by adiabatic cycles are refereed to as the exotic quantum holonomy, which…
Fast nonadiabatic control protocols known as shortcuts to adiabaticity have found a plethora of applications, but their use has been severely limited to speeding up the dynamics of isolated quantum systems. We introduce shortcuts for open…
An adiabatic transition between two equilibrium states corresponding to different stiffnesses in an infinite chain of particles is studied. Initially, the chain particles have random displacements and random velocities corresponding to a…
When an isolated system is brought in contact with a heat bath its final energy is random and follows the Gibbs distribution -- a cornerstone of statistical physics. The system's energy can also be changed by performing non-adiabatic work…