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We present a general quantum fluctuation theorem for the entropy production of an open quantum system coupled to multiple environments, not necessarily at equilibrium. Such a general theorem, when restricted to the weak-coupling and…
We revisit the relationship between the Nernst theorem and the Kelvin-Planck statement of the second law. We propose that the exchange of entropy uniformly vanishes as the temperature goes to zero. The analysis of this assumption shows that…
Fluctuation theorems are fundamental results in non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Considering the fluctuation theorem with respect to the entropy production and an observable, we derive a new thermodynamic uncertainty relation which also…
The second law of thermodynamics tells us which state transformations are so statistically unlikely that they are effectively forbidden. Its original formulation, due to Clausius, states that "Heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer…
Characterizing fluctuations of work in coherent quantum systems is notoriously problematic. Here we reveal the ultimate source of the problem by proving that ($\mathfrak{A}$) energy conservation and ($\mathfrak{B}$) the Jarzynski…
The heat theorem (i.e. the second law of thermodynamics or the existence of entropy) is a manifestation of a general property of hamiltonian mechanics and of the ergodic Hypothesis. In nonequilibrium thermodynamics of stationary states the…
It is sometimes argued that the unattainability of zero temperature is a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics. Historically, the independence of the unattainability of zero temperature from the second law was proven more than 80…
We use a relationship between response and correlation function in nonequilibrium systems to establish a connection between the heat production and the deviations from the equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation theorem. This scheme extends the…
We obtain the Crooks and the Jarzynski non-equilibrium fluctuation relations using a direct quantum-mechanical approach for a finite system that is either isolated or coupled not too strongly to a heat bath. These results were hitherto…
We initially prepare a quantum linear oscillator weakly coupled to a bath in equilibrium at an arbitrary temperature. We disturb this system by varying a Hamiltonian parameter of the coupled oscillator, namely, either its spring constant or…
We generalize the Clausius (in)equality to overdamped mesoscopic and macroscopic diffusions in the presence of nonconservative forces. In contrast to previous frameworks, we use a decomposition scheme for heat which is based on an exact…
The nonequilibrium work relation, or Jarzynski equality, establishes a statistical relationship between a series of nonequilibrium experiments on a system subjected to thermal fluctuations and a hypothetical experiment at thermodynamic…
We study two non-equilibrium work fluctuation theorems, the Crooks' theorem and the Jarzynski equality, for a test system coupled to a spatially extended heat reservoir whose degrees of freedom are explicitly modeled. The sufficient…
In quantum statistical mechanics, equilibrium states have been shown to be the typical states for a system that is entangled with its environment, suggesting a possible identification between thermodynamic and von Neumann entropies. In this…
The fluctuation theorem is a pivotal result of statistical physics. It quantifies the probability of observing fluctuations which are in violation of the second law of thermodynamics. More specifically, it quantifies the ratio of the…
We analyze the validity of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for slow relaxation systems in the context of mesoscopic nonequilibrium thermodynamics. We demonstrate that the violation arises as a natural consequence of the elimination of…
According to classical Boltzmannian thermodynamics, the efficiency of a cyclic machine is strictly lower than one. Such a result is a straightforward consequence of the second principle of thermodynamics. Recent advances in the study of the…
We study temperature fluctuations in mesoscopic $N$-body systems undergoing non-equilibrium processes from the perspective of stochastic thermodynamics. By introducing a stochastic differential equation, we describe the evolution of the…
Fluctuation theorems are relations constraining the out-of-equilibrium fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities like the entropy production that were initially introduced for classical or quantum systems in contact with a thermal bath. Here…
In his ninth memoir Clausius summarizes the two principles of thermodynamics as follows: "The whole mechanical theory of heat rests on two fundamental theorems: that of equivalence of heat and work, and that of equivalence of…