Related papers: Quantum thermal machines and batteries
Quantum mechanics, one of the most successful theories in the history of science, was created to account for physical systems not describable by classical physics. Though it is consistent with all experiments conducted thus far, many of its…
Thermodynamics was developed in the XIXth century to provide a physical description to engines and other macroscopic thermal machines. Since then, progress in nanotechnologies urged to extend these formalism, initially designed for…
This paper explores the historical development of the theory of quantum mechanics between 1900 and 1927 by chronological examination of the foundational papers and ideas. Beginning with Planck's introduction of energy quantisation in…
Since its inception about two centuries ago thermodynamics has sparkled continuous interest and fundamental questions. According to the second law no heat engine can have an efficiency larger than Carnot's efficiency. The latter can be…
Thermodynamics is the phenomenological theory of heat and work. Here we analyze to what extent quantum thermodynamic relations are immune to the underlying mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics. As a main result, we show that the…
We define thermodynamic configurations and identify two primitives of discrete quantum processes between configurations for which heat and work can be defined in a natural way. This allows us to uncover a general second law for any discrete…
Recent years have enjoyed an overwhelming interest in quantum thermodynamics, a field of research aimed at understanding thermodynamic tasks performed in the quantum regime. Further progress, however, seems to be obstructed by the lack of…
Quantum Thermodynamics is a continuous dialogue between two independent theories: Thermodynamics and Quantum Mechanics. Whenever the two theories addressed the same phenomena new insight has emerged. We follow the dialogue from equilibrium…
Sadi Carnot's theorem regarding the maximum efficiency of heat engines is considered to be of fundamental importance in thermodynamics. This theorem famously states that the maximum efficiency depends only on the temperature of the heat…
"Ever since the advent of modern quantum mechanics in the late 1920's, the idea has been prevalent that the classical laws of probability cease, in some sense, to be valid in the new theory. [...] The primary object of this presentation is…
Controlling and measuring the temperature in different devices and platforms that operate in the quantum regime is, without any doubt, essential for any potential application. In this review, we report the most recent theoretical…
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…
The first law of thermodynamics imposes not just a constraint on the energy-content of systems in extreme quantum regimes, but also symmetry-constraints related to the thermodynamic processing of quantum coherence. We show that this…
Envisioned by Richard Feynman in the early 1980s, quantum simulation has received dramatic impetus thanks to the development of a variety of plateforms able to emulate a wide class of quantum Hamiltonians. During the past decade, most of…
The thermodynamics of quantum systems coupled to periodically modulated heat baths and work reservoirs is developed. By identifying affinities and fluxes, the first and second law are formulated consistently. In the linear response regime,…
[...] By the beginning of the 20th century, the principles of thermodynamics were summarized into the so-called four laws, which were, as it turns out, definitive negative answers to the doomed quests for perpetual motion machines. As a…
Originally formulated for macroscopic machines, the laws of thermodynamics were recently shown to hold for quantum systems coupled to ideal sources of work (external classical fields) and heat (systems at equilibrium). Ongoing efforts have…
In the context of quantum thermodynamics, quantum batteries have emerged as promising devices for energy storage and manipulation. Over the past decade, substantial progress has been made in understanding the fundamental properties of…
We are currently in the midst of a second quantum revolution. The first quantum revolution gave us new rules that govern physical reality. The second quantum revolution will take these rules and use them to develop new technologies. In this…
The concept of thermal machines has evolved from the canonical steam engine to the recently proposed nanoscopic quantum systems as working fluids. The latter obey quantum open system dynamics and frequently operate in non-equilibrium…