Related papers: Inferring work by quantum superposing forward and …
We numerically simulate a thermalization process in an energy landscape with hierarchically organized metastable states. The initial configuration is chosen to have a large energy excess, relative to the thermal equilibrium value at the…
We analyze how the amount of work dissipated by a fixed nonequilibrium process depends on the initial distribution over states. Specifically, we compare the amount of dissipation when the process is used with some specified initial…
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 derive a systematic approach to the thermodynamics of quantum systems based on the underlying symmetry groups. We show that the entropy of a system can be described in terms of group-theoretical quantities that are largely independent of…
The orientation fluctuations of the director of a liquid crystal are measured, by a sensitive polarization interferometer, close to the Fr\'eedericksz transition, which is a second order transition driven by an electric field. Using mean…
We present a new proposal for distinguishing heat from work based on a control-theoretic observability decomposition. We derive a Hermitian operator representing instantaneous dissipation of observable energy, and suggest a generalization…
The interplay between thermodynamics, general relativity and quantum mechanics has long intrigued researchers. Recently, important advances have been obtained in thermodynamics, mainly regarding its application to the quantum domain through…
The thermodynamic behavior of Markovian open quantum systems can be described at the level of fluctuations by using continuous monitoring approaches. However, practical applications require assessing imperfect detection schemes, where the…
We investigate how to minimize the work dissipated during nonequilibrium processes. To this end, we employ methods from linear response theory to describe slowly varying processes, i.e., processes operating within the linear regime around…
In recent years we have witnessed a concentrated effort to make sense of thermodynamics for small-scale systems. One of the main difficulties is to capture a suitable notion of work that models realistically the purpose of quantum machines,…
Quantum effects in material systems are often pronounced at low energies and become insignificant at high temperatures. We find that, perhaps counterintuitively, certain quantum effects may follow the opposite route and become sharp when…
For closed quantum systems driven away from equilibrium, work is often defined in terms of projective measurements of initial and final energies. This definition leads to statistical distributions of work that satisfy nonequilibrium work…
Close to equilibrium, the exchange of particles and heat between macroscopic systems at different temperatures and different chemical potentials is known to be governed by a matrix of transport coefficients which is positive and symmetric.…
We provide a detailed description of the quantum interferometric thermometer, which is a device that estimates the temperature of a sample from the measurements of the optical phase. For the first time, we rigorously analyze the operation…
The thermalization of an isolated quantum system is described by quantum mechanics and thermodynamics, while these two subjects are still not fully consistent with each other. This leaves a less-explored region where both quantum and…
In thermodynamics, entropy production and work quantify irreversibility and the consumption of useful energy, respectively, when a system is driven out of equilibrium. For quantum systems, these quantities can be identified at the…
In quantum thermodynamics, the standard approach to estimate work fluctuations in unitary processes is based on two projective measurements, one performed at the beginning of the process and one at the end. The first measurement destroys…
The experimental time scale dependence of thermodynamic relations in out-of-equilibrium systems with aging phenomena is investigated theoretically by using only aging properties of the two-time correlation functions and the generalized…
We analyze the production of entropy along non-equilibrium processes in quantum systems coupled to generic environments. First, we show that the entropy production due to final measurements and the loss of correlations obeys a fluctuation…
The free-energy difference $\Delta F$ between two high-dimensional systems is notoriously difficult to compute, but very important for many applications, such as drug discovery. We demonstrate that an unconventional definition of work…