Related papers: Quantum Thermodynamics in the Refined Weak Couplin…
We consider two non-interacting systems embedded in a heat bath. If they remain dynamically independent, physical inconsistencies are avoided only if the single-system reduced dynamics is completely positive also beyond the weak-coupling…
This work is devoted to a rigorous analysis of the weak coupling limit (WCL) for the reduced dynamics of an open infinite-dimensional quantum system interacting with electromagnetic field or a reservoir formed by Fermi or Bose particles in…
We show that the dynamics of a driven quantum system weakly coupled to the environment can exhibit two distinct regimes. While the relaxation basis is usually determined by the system+drive Hamiltonian (system-governed dynamics), we find…
The laws of thermodynamics are a cornerstone of physics. At the nanoscale, where fluctuations and quantum effects matter, there is no unique thermodynamic framework because thermodynamic quantities such as heat and work depend on the…
The relationship between thermodynamics and statistical physics is valid in the thermodynamic limit - when the number of particles becomes very large. Here, we study thermodynamics in the opposite regime - at both the nano scale, and when…
We derive and solve analytically the non-Markovian master equation for harmonic quantum Brownian motion proving that, for weak system-reservoir couplings and high temperatures, it can be recast in the form of the master equation for a…
We describe some of the recent progress in the calculation of thermodynamic quantities in QCD at high temperatures and densities by weak-coupling techniques and extrapolation to realistic coupling strength. We argue that a (mostly) weakly…
We consider the entropy production of a strongly coupled bipartite system. The total entropy production can be partitioned into various components, which we use to define local versions of the Second Law that are valid without the usual…
Recent advances in quantum thermodynamics have been focusing on ever more elementary systems of interest, approaching the limit of a single qubit, with correlations, strong coupling and non-equilibrium environments coming into play. Under…
The proof of the existence of the thermodynamic limit for electrons and nuclei interacting via the Coulomb potential, in the framework of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, was accomplished decades ago. This result did not take account of…
It is known that one can characterize the decoherence strength of a Markovian environment by the product of its temperature and induced damping, and order the decoherence strength of multiple environments by this quantity. We show that for…
We investigate the thermodynamics of simple (non-interacting) transport models beyond the scope of weak coupling. For a single fermionic or bosonic level -- tunnel-coupled to two reservoirs -- exact expressions for the stationary matter and…
The second law of thermodynamics, formulated as an ultimate bound on the maximum extractable work, has been rigorously derived in multiple scenarios. However, the unavoidable limitations that emerge due to the lack of control on small…
The minimal-coupling quantum heat engine is a thermal machine consisting of an explicit energy storage system, heat baths, and a working body, which alternatively couples to subsystems through discrete strokes -- energy-conserving two-body…
We study the asymptotic dynamics of arbitrary linear quantum open systems which are periodically driven while coupled with generic bosonic reservoirs. We obtain exact results for the heat flowing into the network, which are valid beyond the…
We introduce a new analytical method for studying the open quantum systems problem of a discrete system weakly coupled to an environment of harmonic oscillators. Our approach is based on a phase space representation of the density matrix…
We introduce an alternative way to understand the decomposition of a quantum system into interacting parts and show that it is natural in several physical models. This enables us to define a reduced density operator for a working system…
We consider a quantum system in contact with a heat bath consisting in an infinite chain of identical sub-systems at thermal equilibrium at inverse temperature $\beta$. The time evolution is discrete and such that over each time step of…
By employing the full counting statistics formalism, we characterize the first moment of energy that is exchanged during a generally non-Markovian evolution in non-driven continuous variables systems. In particular, we focus on the…
The minimal set of thermodynamic control parameters consists of a statistical (thermal) and a mechanical one. These suffice to introduce all the pertinent thermodynamic variables; thermodynamic processes can then be defined as paths on this…