Related papers: {\it Colloquium:} Statistical Mechanics and Thermo…
Quantum dynamics of driven open systems should be compatible with both quantum mechanic and thermodynamic principles. By formulating the thermodynamic principles in terms of a set of postulates we obtain a thermodynamically consistent…
Relations between Hamiltonian mechanics and quantum mechanics are studied. It is stressed that classical mechanics possesses all the specific features of quantum theory: operators, complex variables, probabilities (in case of ergodic…
An unified thermodynamical framework based in the use of a generalized Massieu-Planck thermodynamic potential is proposed and a new formulation of Boltzmann-Gibbs Statistical Mechanics is established. Under this philosophy a generalization…
Thermodynamics and its quantum counterpart are traditionally described with statistical ensembles. Canonical typicality has related statistical mechanics for a system to ensembles of global energy eigen- states of system and its environment…
We consider a quantum system linearly coupled to a reservoir of harmonic oscillators. For finite coupling strengths, the stationary distribution of the damped system is not of the Gibbs form, in contrast to standard thermodynamics. With the…
We study the possibility of applying statistical mechanics to generally covariant quantum theories with a vanishing Hamiltonian. We show that (under certain appropiate conditions) this makes sense, in spite of the absence of a notion of…
The state of a thermodynamic system being characterized by its set of extensive variables $q^{i}(i=1,...,n) ,$ we write the associated intensive variables $\gamma_{i},$ the partial derivatives of the entropy $ S(q^{1},...,q^{n}) \equiv…
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…
The performance characteristics of a heat rectifier and a heat pump are studied in a non Markovian framework. The device is constructed from a molecule connected to a hot and cold reservoir. The heat baths are modelled using the stochastic…
Lack of knowledge about the detailed many-particle motion on the microscopic scale is a key issue in any theoretical description of a macroscopic experiment. For systems at or close to thermal equilibrium, statistical mechanics provides a…
We describe a finite inhomogeneous three dimensional system of classical particles which interact through short and (or) long range interactions by means of a simple analytic spin model. The thermodynamic properties of the system are worked…
Environments in quantum thermodynamics usually take the role of heat baths. These baths are Markovian, weakly coupled to the system, and initialized in a thermal state. Whenever one of these properties is missing, standard quantum…
We extend the recently developed non-gaussian thermodynamic formalism \cite{tre98} of a (presumably strongly turbulent) non-Markovian medium to its most general form that allows for the formulation of a consistent thermodynamic theory. All…
The Hamiltonian of mean force (HMF) provides the standard starting point for strong-coupling thermodynamics, yet explicit operator forms are known only in restricted settings. We present a quenched density framework that uses the…
In a macroscopic (quantum or classical) Hamiltonian system, we prove the second law of thermodynamics in the forms of the minimum work principle and the law of entropy increase, under the assumption that the initial state is described by a…
We study the transition probabilities of a two-point measurement on a quantum system, initially prepared in a thermal state. We find two independent constraints on the difference between transition probabilities when the system is prepared…
The development of a self-consistent thermodynamic theory of quantum systems is of fundamental importance for modern physics. Still, despite its essential role in quantum science and technology, there is no unifying formalism for…
How should one define thermodynamic quantities (internal energy, work, heat, etc.) for quantum systems coupled to their environments strongly? We examine three (classically equivalent) definitions of a quantum system's internal energy under…
A conceptually simple physical interpretation of a conserved Hamiltonian $\mathcal{H}$ for a mechanical system with a time-dependent constraint is given. For the case of a bead on a vertical hoop forced to rotate with constant angular…
The classical thermodynamic laws fail to capture the behavior of systems with energy Hamiltonian which is an explicit function of the temperature. Such Hamiltonian arises, for example, in modeling information processing systems, like…