English

Quantum fluctuation theorems, contextuality and work quasi-probabilities

Quantum Physics 2018-01-26 v2 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We discuss the role of contextuality within quantum fluctuation theorems, in the light of a recent no-go result by Perarnau \emph{et al}. We show that any fluctuation theorem reproducing the two-point-measurement scheme for classical states either admits a notion of work quasi-probability or fails to describe protocols exhibiting contextuality. Conversely, we describe a protocol that smoothly interpolates between the two-point measurement work distribution for projective measurements and Allahverdyan's work quasi-probability for weak measurements, and show that the negativity of the latter is a direct signature of contextuality.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1705.05397,
  title  = {Quantum fluctuation theorems, contextuality and work quasi-probabilities},
  author = {Matteo Lostaglio},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.05397},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

5+8 pages, close to published version

R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:47:44.778Z