Related papers: Work-minimizing protocols in driven-dissipative qu…
We consider the reduced dynamics in a bipartite quantum system (consisting of a central system and an intermediate environment) coupled to a heat bath at finite temperature. To describe this situation, in the simplest possible -- yet…
Motivated by the need for precise, energy-efficient, and experimentally realistic quantum control protocols, we investigate the thermodynamic cost of performing quantum step-equilibration processes under the influence of classical…
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…
We study optimal control strategies to optimize the relaxation rate towards the fixed point of a quantum system in the presence of a non-Markovian dissipative bath. Contrary to naive expectations that suggest that memory effects might be…
We treat a quantum mechanical system with certain general properties which are expected to be common in macroscopic quantum systems. Starting from a PURE initial state (which may not describe an equilibrium) in which energy is mildly…
Optimal control theory deals with finding protocols to steer a system between assigned initial and final states, such that a trajectory-dependent cost function is minimized. The application of optimal control to stochastic systems is an…
In the classical limit no work is needed to couple a system to a bath with sufficiently weak coupling strength (or with arbitrarily finite coupling strength for a linear system) at the same temperature. In the quantum domain this may be…
In quantum systems which satisfy the hypothesis of equal weights for eigenstates [4], the maximum work principle (for extremely slow and relatively fast operation) is derived by using quantum dynamics alone. This may be a crucial step in…
We show that energy dissipation in slowly-driven, Markovian quantum systems at low temperature is linked to the geometry of the driving protocol through the quantum (or Fubini-Study) metric. Utilizing these findings, we establish lower…
The minimal-coupling quantum heat engine is a thermal machine consisting of an explicit energy storage system, heat baths, and a working body, which alternatively couples to subsystems through discrete strokes -- energy-conserving two-body…
We characterize finite-time thermodynamic processes of multidimensional quadratic overdamped systems. Analytic expressions are provided for heat, work, and dissipation for any evolution of the system covariance matrix. The Bures-Wasserstein…
Considering a general microscopic model for a quantum measuring apparatus comprising a quantum probe coupled to a thermal bath, we analyze the energetic resources necessary for the realization of a quantum measurement, which includes the…
We derive an equality for non-equilibrium statistical mechanics in finite-dimensional quantum systems. The equality concerns the worst-case work output of a time-dependent Hamiltonian protocol in the presence of a Markovian heat bath. It…
We reassess the concept of transition at minimum work in classical stochastic finite-time thermodynamics, when the system dynamics is modelled by a diffusion process. We show that a well-posed formulation of the optimal control problem…
Work, moments of work and heat flux are studied for the generic case of a strongly driven twolevel system immersed in a bosonic heat bath in domains of parameter space where perturbative treatments fail. This includes particularly the…
To achieve efficient and reliable control of microscopic systems one should look for driving protocols that mitigate both the average dissipation and stochastic fluctuations in work. This is especially important in fast driving regimes in…
We apply the quantum jump approach to address the statistics of work in a driven two-level system coupled to a heat bath. We demonstrate how this question can be analyzed by counting photons absorbed and emitted by the environment in…
Providing the microscopic behavior of a thermalization process has always been an intriguing issue. There are several models of thermalization, which often requires interaction of the system under consideration with the microscopic…
The design of efficient quantum information processing will rely on optimal nonequilibrium transitions of driven quantum systems. Building on a recently-developed geometric framework for computing optimal protocols for classical systems…
We study thermodynamic processes in contact with a heat bath that may have an arbitrary time-varying periodic temperature profile. Within the framework of stochastic thermodynamics, and for models of thermo-dynamic engines in the idealized…