Description of quantum coherence in thermodynamic processes requires constraints beyond free energy

@article{Lostaglio2015DescriptionOQ,
  title={Description of quantum coherence in thermodynamic processes requires constraints beyond free energy},
  author={Matteo Lostaglio and David Jennings and Terry Rudolph},
  journal={Nature Communications},
  year={2015},
  volume={6}
}
Recent studies have developed fundamental limitations on nanoscale thermodynamics, in terms of a set of independent free energy relations. Here we show that free energy relations cannot properly describe quantum coherence in thermodynamic processes. By casting time-asymmetry as a quantifiable, fundamental resource of a quantum state, we arrive at an additional, independent set of thermodynamic constraints that naturally extend the existing ones. These asymmetry relations reveal that the… 
View on PubMed
nature.com
446 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
5
Background Citations
117
Methods Citations
6
Results Citations
1

446 Citations

Clock-Work Trade-Off Relation for Coherence in Quantum Thermodynamics.
TLDR
A clock-work trade-off relation can be viewed as a form of time-energy conjugate relation within quantum thermodynamics that bounds the total maximum of clock and work resources for a given system.
Quantum Coherences and Classical Inhomogeneities as Equivalent Thermodynamics Resources
Quantum energy coherences represent a thermodynamic resource, which can be exploited to extract energy from a thermal reservoir and deliver that energy as work. We argue that there exists a closely…
Fluctuating Work in Coherent Quantum Systems: Proposals and Limitations
One of the most important goals in quantum thermodynamics is to demonstrate advantages of themodynamic protocols over their classical counterparts. For that, it is necessary to (i) develop…
Quantum thermo-dynamical construction for driven open quantum systems
Quantum dynamics of driven open systems should be compatible with both quantum mechanic and thermodynamic principles. By formulating the thermodynamic principles in terms of a set of postulates we…
Coherence and measurement in quantum thermodynamics
TLDR
Information processing tasks, the so-called projections, that can only be formulated within the framework of quantum mechanics are identified and it is shown that the physical realisation of such projections can come with a non-trivial thermodynamic work only for quantum states with coherences.
The extraction of work from quantum coherence
TLDR
It is shown that for any thermal machine with finite resources not all the coherence of a state can be extracted as work, however, even bounded thermal machines can be reused infinitely many times in the process of work extraction from coherence.
Quantum majorization and a complete set of entropic conditions for quantum thermodynamics
TLDR
A quantum-mechanical generalization of majorization is used to derive a complete set of necessary and sufficient conditions for thermal transformations of quantum states, based on natural physical principles, namely, energy conservation, the existence of equilibrium states, and the requirement that quantum coherence be accounted for thermodynamics.
Role of coherence in the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of quantum systems.
TLDR
It is proved that a division of the irreversible work can be made into a coherent and incoherent part, which provides an operational criterion for quantifying the coherent contribution in a generic nonequilibrium transformation on a closed quantum system.
Role of quantum coherence in the thermodynamics of energy transfer.
TLDR
For this system, it is shown that a large enough amount of coherence is necessary and sufficient to revert the thermodynamic arrow of time, and a class of nonequilibrium states that only allow unidirectional energy flow is introduced.
Quantum Coherence and Ergotropy.
TLDR
This work identifies a coherent contribution to the ergotropy (the maximum amount of unitarily extractable work via cyclical variation of Hamiltonian parameters) and shows this by dividing the optimal transformation into an incoherent operation and a coherence extraction cycle.
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 89 REFERENCES
Fundamental limitations for quantum and nanoscale thermodynamics.
TLDR
It is found that there are fundamental limitations on work extraction from non-equilibrium states, owing to finite size effects and quantum coherences, which implies that thermodynamical transitions are generically irreversible at this scale.
Thermodynamics of Quantum Information Systems — Hamiltonian Description
TLDR
This work proves the formula within Hamiltonian description of drawing work from a quantum system and a heat bath, at the cost of entropy of the system, and derives Landauer's principle as a consequence of the second law within the considered model.
Resource theory of quantum states out of thermal equilibrium.
TLDR
It is shown that the free energy of thermodynamics emerges naturally from the resource theory of energy-preserving transformations, provided that a sublinear amount of coherent superposition over energy levels is available, a situation analogous to the sub linear amount of classical communication required for entanglement dilution.
Extracting work from quantum systems
We consider the task of extracting work from quantum systems in the resource theory perspective of thermodynamics, where free states are arbitrary thermal states, and allowed operations are energy…
Work extraction and thermodynamics for individual quantum systems.
TLDR
It is proved that the second law of thermodynamics holds in this framework, and a simple protocol is given to extract the optimal amount of work from the system, equal to its change in free energy.
Entanglement and the thermodynamic arrow of time.
TLDR
It is proved that the occurrence of a transformation between two thermodynamic states constitutes a new type of entanglement witness, one not defined as a separating plane in state space between separable and entangled states, but as a physical process dependent on the local initial properties of the states.
The second laws of quantum thermodynamics
TLDR
Here, it is found that for processes which are approximately cyclic, the second law for microscopic systems takes on a different form compared to the macroscopic scale, imposing not just one constraint on state transformations, but an entire family of constraints.
Catalytic coherence.
TLDR
Here it is shown that coherence can be turned into a catalyst, meaning that the authors can use it repeatedly without ever diminishing its power to enable coherent operations.
Entanglement boost for extractable work from ensembles of quantum batteries.
  • R. Alicki, M. Fannes
  • Physics
    Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
  • 2013
TLDR
It is shown that entangling unitary controls extract in general more work than independent ones, and in the limit of a large number of copies one can reach the thermodynamical bound given by the variational principle for the free energy.
Gibbs-preserving maps outperform thermal operations in the quantum regime
In this brief paper, we compare two frameworks for characterizing possible operations in quantum thermodynamics. One framework considers thermal operations—unitaries which conserve energy. The other…
...
...