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We consider a generalisation of thermodynamics that deals with multiple conserved quantities at the level of individual quantum systems. Each conserved quantity, which, importantly, need not commute with the rest, can be extracted and…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2016-07-14 Yelena Guryanova , Sandu Popescu , Anthony J. Short , Ralph Silva , Paul Skrzypczyk

Extracting useful work from quantum systems is a fundamental problem in quantum thermodynamics. In scenarios where rapid protocols are desired -- whether due to practical constraints or deliberate design choices -- a fundamental trade-off…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-04-23 Shoki Sugimoto , Takahiro Sagawa , Ryusuke Hamazaki

The study of quantum thermodynamics aims to elucidate the role played by quantum principles in the emergent features of quantum thermodynamic processes. Specifically, it is of fundamental importance to understand how quantum correlation…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-08-13 Jaewon Lee , Changsuk Noh , Kabgyun Jeong , Hyunchul Nha

How much work can be extracted from a heat bath using a thermal machine? The study of this question has a very long tradition in statistical physics in the weak-coupling limit, applied to macroscopic systems. However, the assumption that…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-06-17 R. Gallego , A. Riera , J. Eisert

The second law of thermodynamics uses change in free energy of macroscopic systems to set a bound on performed work. Ergotropy plays a similar role in microscopic scenarios, and is defined as the maximum amount of energy that can be…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-10-19 Tanmoy Biswas , Marcin Łobejko , Paweł Mazurek , Konrad Jałowiecki , Michał Horodecki

According to the second law of thermodynamics, for every transformation performed on a system which is in contact with an environment of fixed temperature, the extracted work is bounded by the decrease of the free energy of the system.…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2016-07-15 Vasco Cavina , Andrea Mari , Vittorio Giovannetti

Quantum thermal states are known to be passive, as required by the second law of thermodynamics. This paper investigates the potential for work extraction by coupling a thermal bath to a qubit of either spin, fermionic, or topological type,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-04-29 Jhh-Jing Hong , Feng-Li Lin

Quantum thermodynamics can be naturally phrased as a theory of quantum state transformation and energy exchange for small-scale quantum systems undergoing thermodynamical processes, thereby making the resource theoretical approach very well…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-07-19 Uttam Singh , Jarosław K. Korbicz , Nicolas J. Cerf

We establish quantum thermodynamics for open quantum systems weakly coupled to their reservoirs when the system exhibits degeneracies. The first and second law of thermodynamics are derived, as well as a finite-time fluctuation theorem for…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2017-03-08 Gregory Bulnes Cuetara , Massimiliano Esposito , Gernot Schaller

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…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-03-30 Felix C. Binder , Sai Vinjanampathy , Kavan Modi , John Goold

We design a heat engine with multi-heat-reservoir, ancillary system and quantum memory. We then derive an inequality related with the second law of thermodynamics, and give a new limitation about the work gain from the engine by analyzing…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-11-09 Li-Hang Ren , Heng Fan

Thermodynamics at the nanoscale is known to differ significantly from its familiar macroscopic counterpart: the possibility of state transitions is not determined by free energy alone, but by an infinite family of free-energy-like…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-12-21 Markus P. Mueller

Technological and scientific advances have given rise to an era in which coherent quantum-mechanical phenomena can be probed and experimentally-realised over unprecedented timescales in condensed matter physics. In turn, scientific interest…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-12-23 Marlon Brenes

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 Physics · Physics 2016-11-23 R. Gallego , J. Eisert , H. Wilming

Bridging the second law of thermodynamics and microscopic reversible dynamics has been a longstanding problem in statistical physics. We here address this problem on the basis of quantum many-body physics, and discuss how the entropy…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2018-01-03 Kazuya Kaneko , Eiki Iyoda , Takahiro Sagawa

Inspired by the primary goal of quantum thermodynamics -- to characterize quantum signatures and leverage their benefits in thermodynamic scenarios -- , we design a work extraction game within a bipartite framework that exhibits a quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-09-15 Tanmoy Biswas , Chandan Datta , Luis Pedro García-Pintos

For macroscopic systems, the second law of thermodynamics establishes an inequality between the amount of work performed on a system in contact with a thermal reservoir, and the change in its free energy. For microscopic systems, this…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2010-02-08 Eliran Boksenbojm , Bram Wynants , Christopher Jarzynski

The thermodynamic properties of quantum heat engines are stochastic owing to the presence of thermal and quantum fluctuations. We here experimentally investigate the efficiency and nonequilibrium entropy production statistics of a spin-1/2…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-04-29 Tobias Denzler , Jonas F. G. Santos , Eric Lutz , Roberto Serra

We consider continuously monitored quantum systems and introduce definitions of work and heat along individual quantum trajectories that are valid for coherent superpositions of energy eigenstates. We use these quantities to extend the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2016-03-22 Jose Joaquin Alonso , Eric Lutz , Alessandro Romito

A fundamental problem in quantum thermodynamics is to properly quantify the work extractable from out-of-equilibrium systems. While for closed systems, maximum quantum work extraction is defined in terms of the ergotropy functional, this…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2024-10-22 Riccardo Castellano , Donato Farina , Vittorio Giovannetti , Antonio Acin