Related papers: Decomposable coherence and quantum fluctuation rel…
Two approaches to small-scale and quantum thermodynamics are fluctuation relations and one-shot statistical mechanics. Fluctuation relations (such as Crooks' Theorem and Jarzynski's Equality) relate nonequilibrium behaviors to equilibrium…
A deeper understanding of the differences between quantum and classical dynamics promises great potential for emerging technologies. Nevertheless, some aspects remain poorly understood, particularly concerning the role of quantum coherence…
The thermodynamics of small quantum many-body systems strongly coupled to a heat bath at low temperatures with non-Markovian behavior are new challenges for quantum thermodynamics, as traditional thermodynamics is built on large systems…
Fluctuation theorems are fundamental extensions of the second law of thermodynamics for small systems. Their general validity arbitrarily far from equilibrium makes them invaluable in nonequilibrium physics. So far, experimental studies of…
In bipartite quantum systems commutation relations between the Hamiltonian of each subsystem and the interaction impose fundamental constraints on the dynamics of each partition. Here we investigate work, heat and entropy production in…
In slowly driven classical systems, work is a stochastic quantity and its probability distribution is known to satisfy the work fluctuation-dissipation relation, which states that the mean and variance of the dissipated work are linearly…
A quantum analog of friction (understood as a completely positive, Markovian, translation-invariant and phenomenological model of dissipation) is known to be in odds with the detailed balance in the thermodynamic limit. We show that this is…
Why do quantum evolutions occur and why do they stop at certain points? In classical thermodynamics affinity was introduced to predict in which direction an irreversible process proceeds. In this paper the quantum mechanical counterpart of…
In the framework of the theory of open systems based on completely positive quantum dynamical semigroups, we determine the degree of quantum decoherence of a harmonic oscillator interacting with a thermal bath. It is found that the system…
The hydrodynamic formulation of quantum mechanics is used to elucidate the mechanism for decoherence, the suppression of interference effects in a system evolving from an initial coherent superposition. Analysis of time-dependent trajectory…
"Quantum mechanics must be regarded as open systems. On one hand, this is due to the fact that, like in classical physics, any realistic system is subjected to a coupling to an uncontrollable environment which influences it in a…
The fact that gravitational environments cannot be shielded (since gravity is universal) makes them of great theoretical interest to decoherence mechanisms and to the quantum-to-classical transition. While past results seemed to indicate…
In this paper, unambiguous redefinitions of heat and work are presented for quantum thermodynamic systems. We will use genuine reasoning based on which Clausius originally defined work and heat in establishing thermodynamics. The change in…
Based on the observation that the thermodynamic equilibrium free energy of an open quantum system in contact with a thermal environment can be understood as the difference between the free energy of the total system and that of the bare…
For driven open systems in contact with multiple heat reservoirs, we find the marginal distributions of work or heat do not satisfy any fluctuation theorem, but only the joint distribution of work and heat satisfies a family of fluctuation…
Decoherence is an essential mechanism that defines the boundary between classical and quantum behaviours, while imposing technological bounds for quantum devices. Little is known about quantum coherence of mechanical systems, as opposed to…
Fluctuations strongly affect the dynamics and functionality of nanoscale thermal machines. Recent developments in stochastic thermodynamics have shown that fluctuations in many far-from-equilibrium systems are constrained by the rate of…
The standard definition of quantum fluctuating work is based on the two-projective energy measurement, which however does not apply to systems with initial quantum coherence because the first projective energy measurement destroys the…
In classical thermodynamic processes the unavoidable presence of irreversibility, quantified by the entropy production, carries two energetic footprints: the reduction of extractable work from the optimal, reversible case, and the…
This work proposes a series of quantum experiments that can, at least in principle, allow for examining microscopic mechanisms associated with decoherence. These experiments can be interpreted as a quantum-mechanical version of…