Related papers: Thermodynamics of Quantum Information Flows
This Colloquium is a fast journey through the build-up of key thermodynamical concepts, i.e. work, heat and irreversibility -- and how they relate to information. Born at the time of industrial revolution to optimize the exploitation of…
Similarity between quantum mechanics and thermodynamics is discussed. It is found that if the Clausius equality is imposed on the Shannon entropy and the analogue of the heat quantity, then the value of the Shannon entropy comes to formally…
A known aspect of the Clausius inequality is that an equilibrium system subjected to a squeezing $\d S$ of its entropy must release at least an amount $|\dbarrm Q|=T|\d S|$ of heat. This serves as a basis for the Landauer principle, which…
The information-theoretic arguments presented in a recent publication on "Quantum discord and Maxwell's demons" are discussed, and found not to address the problem specified by Maxwell. Two interrelated and definitive exorcisms of the…
Resolution of the century-long paradox on Maxwell's demon reveals a deep connection between information theory and thermodynamics. Although initially introduced as a thought experiment, Maxwell's demon can now be implemented in several…
Practical implementations of quantum technologies require preparation of states with a high degree of purity---or, in thermodynamic terms, very low temperatures. Given finite resources, the Third Law of thermodynamics prohibits perfect…
The theory of quantum thermodynamics investigates how the concepts of heat, work, and temperature can be carried over to the quantum realm, where fluctuations and randomness are fundamentally unavoidable. These lecture notes provide an…
We establish quantum thermodynamics for open quantum systems weakly coupled to their reservoirs when the system exhibits degeneracies. The first and second law of thermodynamics are derived, as well as a finite-time fluctuation theorem for…
We introduce a family of Maxwellian Demons for which correlations among information bearing degrees of freedom can be calculated exactly and in compact analytical form. This allows one to precisely determine Demon functional thermodynamic…
Almost all processes -- highly correlated, weakly correlated, or correlated not at all---exhibit statistical fluctuations. Often physical laws, such as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, address only typical realizations -- as highlighted by…
The quantum Maxwell theory at finite temperature at equilibrium is studied on compact and closed manifolds in both the functional integral- and Hamiltonian formalism. The aim is to shed some light onto the interrelation between the topology…
The irreversible entropy increase described by the second law of thermodynamics is fundamentally tied to thermalization and the emergence of equilibrium. In the first part of our work (Ref: arXiv.2503.04152), we constructed an isolated gas…
From the thermodynamic equilibrium properties of a two-level system with variable energy-level gap $\Delta$, and a careful distinction between the Gibbs relation $dE = T dS + (E/\Delta) d\Delta$ and the energy balance equation $dE = \delta…
Heat spontaneously flows from hot to cold in standard thermodynamics. However, the latter theory presupposes the absence of initial correlations between interacting systems. We here experimentally demonstrate the reversal of heat flow for…
An autonomous out of equilibrium Maxwell's demon is used to reverse the natural direction of the heat flux between two electric circuits kept at different temperatures and coupled by the electric thermal noise. The demon does not process…
We consider a situation where an $N$-level system (NLS) is coupled successively to two heat baths with different temperatures without being necessarily thermalized and approaches a steady state. For this situation we apply a general…
We introduce an information free energy for thermodynamic systems driven by external time-dependent parameters. We show that the latter is a nonequilibrium state function and that it is a natural generalization of the usual equilibrium and…
A new microcanonical equilibrium state is introduced for quantum systems with finite-dimensional state spaces. Equilibrium is characterised by a uniform distribution on a level surface of the expectation value of the Hamiltonian. The…
The second law of thermodynamics dictates that heat flows spontaneously from a high-temperature entity to a lower-temperature one. Yet, recent advances have demonstrated that quantum correlations between a system and its thermal environment…
Describing open quantum systems far from equilibrium is challenging, in particular when the environment is mesoscopic, when it develops nonequilibrium features during the evolution, or when the memory effects cannot be disregarded. Here, we…