• DOI:10.1038/ncomms3059
• Corpus ID: 29768679

Fundamental limitations for quantum and nanoscale thermodynamics.

@article{Horodecki2013FundamentalLF,
  title={Fundamental limitations for quantum and nanoscale thermodynamics.},
  author={Michal Horodecki and Jonathan Oppenheim},
  journal={Nature communications},
  year={2013},
  volume={4},
  pages={
          2059
        }
}

• M. Horodecki, J. Oppenheim
• Published 16 November 2011
• Physics
• Nature communications

The relationship between thermodynamics and statistical physics is valid in the thermodynamic limit-when the number of particles becomes very large. Here we study thermodynamics in the opposite regime-at both the nanoscale and when quantum effects become important. Applying results from quantum information theory, we construct a theory of thermodynamics in these limits. We derive general criteria for thermodynamical state transitions, and, as special cases, find two free energies: one that quantifies the deterministically extractable work from a small system in contact with a heat bath, and the other that quantifies the reverse process. We find that there are fundamental limitations on work extraction from non-equilibrium states, owing to finite size effects and quantum coherences. This implies that thermodynamical transitions are generically irreversible at this scale. As one application of these methods, we analyse the efficiency of small heat engines and find that they are irreversible during the adiabatic stages of the cycle.