Related papers: Collective operations can extremely reduce work fl…
The classical Jarzynski equality establishes an exact relation between the stochastic work performed on a system driven out of thermal equilibrium and the free energy difference in a corresponding quasi-static process. This fluctuation…
In the last ten years, a number of ``Conventional Fluctuation Theorems'' have been derived for systems with deterministic or stochastic dynamics, in a transient or in a non-equilibrium stationary state. These theorems gave explicit…
Understanding the role of classical and quantum correlations in work extraction is a problem of fundamental importance in thermodynamics. We approach this problem by considering that, in closed quantum systems, the maximum cyclic work…
Quantum thermodynamics allows for the interconversion of quantum coherence and mechanical work. Quantum coherence is thus a potential physical resource for quantum machines. However, formulating a general nonequilibrium thermodynamics of…
We introduce heat engines working in the nano-regime that allow to extract a finite amount of deterministic work. We show that the efficiency of these cycles is strictly smaller than Carnot's, and we associate this difference with a…
The study of thermodynamic fluctuations allows one to relate the free energy difference between two equilibrium states with the work done on a system through processes far from equilibrium. This finding plays a crucial role in the quantum…
The characteristic function for the joint measurement of the changes of two commuting observables upon an external forcing of a quantum system is derived. In particular, the statistics of the internal energy, the exchanged heat and the work…
This chapter reviews an information theoretic approach to deriving quantum fluctuation theorems. When a thermal system is driven from equilibrium, random quantities of work are required or produced: the Crooks equality is a classical…
Quantum work fluctuation theorem (FT) commonly requires the system initially prepared in an equilibrium state. Whether there exists universal exact quantum work FT for initial state beyond equilibrium needs further discussions. Here, I…
How much work can be extracted from a heat bath using a thermal machine? The study of this question has a very long tradition in statistical physics in the weak-coupling limit, applied to macroscopic systems. However, the assumption that…
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''.…
In the context of nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics, variables like work behave stochastically. A particular definition of the work probability density function (pdf) for coherent quantum processes allows the verification of the quantum…
The interplay between quantum-mechanical properties, such as coherence, and classical notions, such as energy, is a subtle topic at the forefront of quantum thermodynamics. The traditional Carnot argument limits the conversion of heat to…
The total entropy production fluctuations are studied in some exactly solvable models. For these systems, the detailed fluctuation theorem holds even in the transient state, provided initially the system is prepared in thermal equilibrium.…
The quantum version of the Bochkov-Kuzovlev identity is derived on the basis of the appropriate definition of work as the difference of the measured internal energies of a quantum system at the beginning and at the end of an external action…
Accurately describing work extraction from a quantum system is a central objective for the extension of thermodynamics to individual quantum systems. The concepts of work and heat are surprisingly subtle when generalizations are made to…
With the development of quantum thermodynamics it has been shown that relaxation to thermal equilibrium and with it the concept of heat flux may emerge directly from quantum mechanics. This happens for a large class of quantum systems if…
Characterizing fluctuations of work in coherent quantum systems is notoriously problematic. Here we reveal the ultimate source of the problem by proving that ($\mathfrak{A}$) energy conservation and ($\mathfrak{B}$) the Jarzynski…
We experimentally demonstrate that highly structured distributions of work emerge during even the simple task of erasing a single bit. These are signatures of a refined suite of time-reversal symmetries in distinct functional classes of…
Recent years have seen an enormously revived interest in the study of thermodynamic notions in the quantum regime. This applies both to the study of notions of work extraction in thermal machines in the quantum regime, as well as to…