Quantum Coherence and Ergotropy

We put forth a notion of optimality for extracting ergotropic work, derived from an energy constraint governing the necessary dynamics for work extraction in a quantum system. Within the traditional ergotropy framework, which predicts an infinite set of equivalent pacifying unitaries, we demonstrate that the optimal choice lies in driving along the geodesic connecting a given state to its corresponding passive state. Moreover, in a practical scenario where unitaries are inevi...

The working substance fueling a quantum heat engine may contain coherence in its energy basis, depending on the dynamics of the engine cycle. In some models of quantum Otto heat engines, energy coherence has been associated with entropy production and quantum friction. We considered a quantum Otto heat engine operating at finite time. Coherence is generated and the working substance does not reach thermal equilibrium after interacting with the hot heat reservoir, leaving the ...

We examine the relationship between the second law of thermodynamics and the energy eigenstates of quantum many-body systems that undergo cyclic unitary evolution. Using a numerically optimized control protocol, we analyze how the work extractability is affected by the integrability of the system. Our findings reveal that, in nonintegrable systems the number of work-extractable energy eigenstates converges to zero, even when the local control operations are optimized. In cont...

We show that it is possible to have non-zero ergotropy in the steady-states of an open quantum system consisting of qubits that are collectively coupled to a thermal bath at a finite temperature. The dynamics of our model leads the qubits into a steady-state that has coherences in the energy eigenbasis when the number of qubits in the system is more than one. We observe that even though the system do not have inverted populations, it is possible to extract work from the coher...

Quantum thermodynamics and quantum information are two frameworks for employing quantum mechanical systems for practical tasks, exploiting genuine quantum features to obtain advantages with respect to classical implementations. While appearing disconnected at first, the main resources of these frameworks, work and correlations, have a complicated yet interesting relationship that we examine here. We review the role of correlations in quantum thermodynamics, with a particular ...

Quantum thermodynamics allows for the interconversion of quantum coherence and mechanical work. Quantum coherence is thus a potential physical resource for quantum machines. However, formulating a general nonequilibrium thermodynamics of quantum coherence has turned out to be challenging. In particular, precise conditions under which coherence is beneficial to or, on the contrary, detrimental for work extraction from a system have remained elusive. We here develop a generic d...

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 conserving unitary transformations. Taking as our work storage system a 'weight' we prove the second law and then present simple protocols which extract average work equal to the free energy change of the system - the same amount as in classical thermodynamics. Crucially, for system...

The question of whether quantum coherence is a resource beneficial or detrimental to the performance of quantum heat engines has been thoroughly studied but remains undecided. To isolate the contribution of coherence, we analyze the performance of a purely coherence-driven quantum heat engine, a device that does not include any heat flow during the thermodynamic cycle. The engine is powered by the coherence of a multiqubit system, where each qubit is charged via interaction w...

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 revea...

Energy is often partitioned into heat and work by two independent paths corresponding to the change in the eigenenergies or the probability distributions of a quantum system. The discrepancies of the heat and work for various quantum thermodynamic processes have not been well characterized in literature. Here we show how the work in quantum machines is differentially related to isochoric, isothermal, and adiabatic processes. We prove that the energy exchanges during the quant...