Related papers: Initial quantum coherence in the thermodynamic wor…
A key concept in quantum thermodynamics is extractable work, which specifies the maximum amount of work that can be extracted from a quantum system. Different quantities are used to measure extractable work, the most prevalent of which are…
We discuss the thermodynamics of closed quantum systems driven out of equilibrium by a change in a control parameter and undergoing a unitary process. We compare the work actually done on the system with the one that would be performed…
The first law of thermodynamics restates the law of conservation of energy. It partitions the change in energy of a system into two pieces, heat and work. While there is no ambiguity to define heat and work in classical thermodynamics,…
An open question of fundamental importance in thermodynamics is how to describe the fluctuations of work for quantum coherent processes. In the standard approach, based on a projective energy measurement both at the beginning and at the end…
We discuss the role of quantum coherence in the energy fluctuations of open quantum systems. To this aim, we introduce an operational protocol, to which we refer to as the end-point-measurement scheme, allowing to define the statistics of…
Entropy production is a fundamental concept that plays a crucial role in the second law of thermodynamics and the measure of irreversibility. It imposes rigorous constraints on the kinds of transformations allowed in thermodynamic…
Quantum decoherence is seen as an undesired source of irreversibility that destroys quantum resources. Quantum coherences seem to be a property that vanishes at thermodynamic equilibrium. Away from equilibrium, quantum coherences challenge…
Quantum coherence profoundly alters classical thermodynamic expectations by modifying the structure and accessibility of probability distributions. Classically, transitions to lower-entropy states (local second-law violations) are…
Simulations are performed of a small quantum system interacting with a quantum environment. The system consists of various initial states of two harmonic oscillators coupled to give normal modes. The environment is "designed" by its level…
We discuss the role of quantum coherence in the energy fluctuations of open quantum systems. To this aim, we introduce a protocol, to which we refer to as the end-point-measurement scheme, allowing to define the statistics of energy changes…
We introduce an ergotropy-based formulation of quantum thermodynamics, which provides a strong connection between average heat and von Neumann entropy. By adopting this formulation, we can reinterpret the infinitesimal average heat in terms…
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…
Quantum open systems evolve according to completely positive, trace preserving maps acting on the density operator, which can equivalently be unraveled in term of so-called quantum trajectories. These stochastic sequences of pure states…
We report model calculations of the time-dependent internal energy and entropy for a single quasi-free massive quantum particle at a constant temperature. We show that the whole process started from a fully coherent quantum state to…
We show that it is possible to have non-zero ergotropy in the steady-states of an open quantum system consisting of qubits that are collectively coupled to a thermal bath at a finite temperature. The dynamics of our model leads the qubits…
The relations between quantum coherence and quantum interference are discussed. A general method for generation of quantum coherence through interference-induced state selection is introduced and then applied to `simple' atomic systems…
An open question of fundamental importance in quantum thermodynamics is how to describe the statistics of work for initial state with quantum coherence. In this paper, work statistics is considered from a fully new perspective of…
Thermodynamic irreversibility is well characterized by the entropy production arising from non-equilibrium quantum processes. We show that the entropy production of a quantum system undergoing open-system dynamics can be formally split into…
Entropy production provides a general way to state the second law of thermodynamics for non-equilibrium scenarios. In open quantum system dynamics, it also serves as a useful quantifier of the degree of irreversibility. In this work we shed…
We study the physics of quantum phase transitions from the perspective of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. For first order quantum phase transitions, we find that the average work done per quench in crossing the critical point is…