Related papers: Minimal Work Principle and its Limits for Classica…
Extremal principles can generally be divided into two rather distinct classes. There are, on the one hand side, formulations based on the Lagrangian or Hamiltonian mechanics, respectively, dealing with time dependent problems, but…
We present some novel thermodynamic ideas based on the Maupertuis principle. By considering Hamiltonians written in terms of appropriate action-angle variables we show that thermal states can be characterized by the action variables and by…
Progress in miniaturized technology allows us to control physical systems at nanoscale with remarkable precision. Experimental advancements have sparked interest in control problems in stochastic thermodynamics, typically concerning a…
A recently proposed quantum mechanical criterion `concavity of energy' for the second law of thermodynamics is studied also for classical particle systems confined in a bounded region by a potential with a time-dependent coupling constant.…
We consider damped stochastic systems in a controlled (time-varying) quadratic potential and study their transition between specified Gibbs-equilibria states in finite time. By the second law of thermodynamics, the minimum amount of work…
A longstanding open question in classical mechanics is to formulate the least action principle for dissipative systems. In this work, we give a general formulation of this principle by considering a whole conservative system including the…
This work focuses on the response to an external field of a Brownian particle submerged in an Ohmic quantum thermal bath. The field only affects the dynamics of the central particle without affecting the thermal reservoir. The thermodynamic…
Free energy fixes the maximum work of a thermodynamic process once the state and Hamiltonian are specified. A work-extraction task asks a different question: how much average work can a single device realize across several preparations and…
The quantum analog of Carnot cycles in few-particle systems consists of two quantum adiabatic steps and two isothermal steps. This construction is formally justified by use of a minimum work principle. It is then shown, without relying on…
A recently developed approach to the thermodynamics of open quantum systems, on the basis of the principle of minimal dissipation, is applied to the spin-boson model. Employing a numerically exact quantum dynamical treatment based on the…
Thomson's formulation of the second law - no work can be extracted from a system coupled to a bath through a cyclic process - is believed to be a fundamental principle of nature. For the equilibrium situation a simple proof is presented,…
We argue that the definition of the thermodynamic work done on a charged particle by a time-dependent electromagnetic field is an open problem, because the particle's Hamiltonian is not gauge-invariant. The solution of this problem demands…
We develop a general theory describing the thermodynamical behavior of open quantum systems coupled to thermal baths beyond perturbation theory. Our approach is based on the exact time-local quantum master equation for the reduced open…
There is evidence that taking the time average of the work performed by a thermally isolated system effectively "transforms" the adiabatic process into an isothermal one. This approach allows inherent quantities of adiabatic processes to be…
A generalized version of the Maximum Work Theorem is valid when the system is initially not at thermal equilibrium. In this work, we initially study the fraction of trajectories that violate this generalized theorem for a two simple…
Work fluctuation and total entropy production play crucial roles in small thermodynamic systems subject to large thermal fluctuations. We investigate a trade-off relation between them in a nonequilibrium situation in which a system starts…
The fluctuation-dissipation relation for the classical definition of work is extended to thermally isolated systems, in classical and quantum realms. From this, the optimal work variance is calculated, showing it achieves its minimum…
Equilibrium statistics of Hamiltonian systems is correctly described by the microcanonical ensemble, whereas canonical ones fail in the most interesting, mostly inhomogeneous, situations like phase separations or away from the thermodynamic…
We generalize the second law of thermodynamics in its maximum work formulation for a nonequilibrium initial distribution. It is found that in an isothermal process, the Boltzmann relative entropy (H-function) is not just a Lyapunov function…
The relaxation function is the cornerstone to perform calculations in weakly driven processes. Properties that such a function should obey are already established, but the difficulty in its calculation is still an issue to be overcome. In…