Related papers: Reversing Heat Flow by Coherence in a Multipartite…
In classical thermodynamics energy always flows from the hotter system to the colder one. However, if these systems are initially correlated, the energy flow can reverse, making the cold system colder and the hot system hotter. This…
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…
Heat exchanges are the essence of Thermodynamics. In order to investigate non-equilibrium effects like quantum coherence and correlations in heat flows we introduce the concept of apparent temperature. Its definition is based on the…
A heat engine undergoes a cyclic operation while in equilibrium with the net result of conversion of heat into work. Quantum effects such as superposition of states can improve an engine's efficiency by breaking detailed balance, but this…
We present a mechanism for efficiency increase in quantum heat engines containing internal energy levels that do not couple to the external work sink. The gain is achieved by using these levels to channel heat in a direction opposite to the…
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,…
The heat flow between a quantum system and its reservoir is analyzed when initially both are in a separable thermal state and asymptotically approach a correlated equilibrium. General findings are illustrated for specific systems and…
We derive Fourier's law for a completely coherent quasi one--dimensional chaotic quantum system coupled locally to two heat baths at different temperatures. We solve the master equation to first order in the temperature difference. We show…
The Carnot statement of the second law of thermodynamics poses an upper limit on the efficiency of all heat engines. Recently, it has been studied whether generic quantum features such as coherence and quantum entanglement could allow for…
Common intuition tells us that if one part of a connected system is cooled continuously, the other parts should also cool down. This intuition can be given a microscopic foundation for the case of a generic quantum system coupled to a…
In classical thermodynamics, heat must spontaneously flow from hot to cold systems. In quantum thermodynamics, the same law applies when considering multipartite product thermal states evolving unitarily. If initial correlations are…
Fluctuations of thermodynamic observables, such as heat and work, contain relevant information on the underlying physical process. These fluctuations are however not taken into account in the traditional laws of thermodynamics. While the…
The quantum-mechanical and thermodynamic properties of a 3-level molecular cooling cycle are derived. An inadequacy of earlier models is rectified in accounting for the spontaneous emission and absorption associated with the coupling to the…
Entanglement within a given device provides a potential resource for quantum information processing. Entanglement between system and environment leads to decoherence (thus suppressing non-classical features within the system) but also opens…
The principle that heat spontaneously flows from higher temperature to lower temperature is a cornerstone of classical thermodynamics, often assumed to be independent of the sequence of interactions. While this holds true for macroscopic…
In thermodynamics, quantum coherences - superpositions between energy eigenstates - behave in distinctly nonclassical ways. Recently mathematical frameworks have emerged to account for these features and have provided a range of novel…
Thermodynamics allows the application of Statistical Mechanics to finite and even small systems. As surface effects cannot be scaled away, one has to be careful with the standard arguments of splitting a system into two or bringing two…
The principle of microscopic reversibility is a fundamental element in the formulation of fluctuation relations and the Onsager reciprocal relations. As such, a clear description of whether and how this principle is adapted to the quantum…
Coherent control of self-contained quantum systems offers the possibility to fabricate smallest thermal transistors. The steady coherence created by the delocalization of electronic excited states arouses nonlinear heat transports in…
Understanding thermodynamics far from equilibrium at the quantum scale remains a fundamental challenge, particularly in the presence of quantum coherence. Here we develop a first-principles framework for nonequilibrium quantum…