Related papers: Thermodynamics of Optical Bloch Equations
We consider a thermodynamic machine in which the working fluid is a quantized harmonic oscillator that is controlled on timescales that are much faster than the oscillator period. We find that operation in this `fast' regime allows access…
One of the fundamental problems of quantum statistical physics is how an ideally isolated quantum system can ever reach thermal equilibrium behavior despite the unitary time evolution of quantum-mechanical systems. Here, we study, via…
Using the quasi-equilibrium Helmholtz energy (qHE), defined as the thermodynamic work in a quasi-static process, we investigate the thermal properties of both an isothermal process and a transition process between the adiabatic and…
We investigate the thermodynamic consistency of the master equation description of heat transport through an optomechanical system attached to two heat baths, one optical and one mechanical. We employ three different master equations to…
A model for the thermodynamics of a quantum heat bath is introduced. Under the assumption that the bath molecules have finitely many degrees of freedom and are weakly interacting, we present a general derivation of the equation of state of…
This work presents a unified perspective on thermal equilibrium and quantum dynamics by examining the simplest quantum system, a qubit, as a minimal model. We show that both the thermal partition function and the Loschmidt amplitude can be…
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…
We present a protocol for the study of the dynamics and thermodynamics of quantum systems strongly coupled to a bath and subject to an external modulation. Our protocol quantifies the evolution of the system-bath composite by expanding the…
Thermodynamic geometry provides a physically transparent framework to describe thermodynamic processes in meso- and micro-scale systems that are driven by slow variations of external control parameters. Focusing on periodic driving for…
Periodically driven quantum systems suffer from heating via resonant excitation. While such Floquet heating guides a generic isolated system towards the infinite-temperature state, a driven open system, coupled to a thermal bath, will…
Quantum heat engines form an active field of research due to their potential applications. There are several phenomena that are unique to the quantum regime, some of which are known to give these engines an edge over their classical…
Assigning the variations of internal energy into heat or work contributions is a challenging task due to the fact that these properties are trajectory dependent. A number of proposals have been put forward for open quantum systems following…
Accurately describing work extraction from a quantum system is a central objective for the extension of thermodynamics to individual quantum systems. The concepts of work and heat are surprisingly subtle when generalizations are made to…
Interaction blockade occurs when strong interactions in a confined few-body system prevent a particle from occupying an otherwise accessible quantum state. Blockade phenomena reveal the underlying granular nature of quantum systems and…
We theoretically explore the finite-time performance of a quantum thermochemical engine using a harmonically trapped 1D Bose gas in the quasicondensate regime as the working fluid. Operating on an Otto cycle, the engine's unitary work…
We introduce both a theoretical and an experimental scheme for simulating a quantum thermal engine through an all-optical approach, with the behavior of the working substance and the thermal reservoirs implemented via internal degrees of…
We investigate fundamental connections between thermodynamics and quantum information theory. First, we show that the operational framework of thermal operations is nonequivalent to the framework of Gibbs-preserving maps, and we comment on…
We develop a geometric framework to describe the thermodynamics of microscopic heat engines driven by slow periodic temperature variations and modulations of a mechanical control parameter. Covering both the classical and the quantum…
We set up a framework for quantum stochastic thermodynamics based solely on experimentally controllable, but otherwise arbitrary interventions at discrete times. Using standard assumptions about the system-bath dynamics and insights from…
A key quantity characterizing a time-periodically forced quantum system coupled to a heat bath is the energy flowing in the steady state through the system into the bath, where it is dissipated. We derive a general expression which allows…