Dynamics of ergotropy and environment-induced work

The focus is on understanding the quantum thermodynamics of strongly coupled non-Markovian quantum systems. To this end, a non-trivial, non-Markovian model of a central spin surrounded by a spin bath is taken up, and its exact evolution is derived for arbitrary system-bath couplings. The fundamental quantum thermodynamic quantities, such as system and bath internal energies, work, heat, entropy production, and ergotropy, are calculated using the dynamics and original system (...

The concept of thermal machines has evolved from the canonical steam engine to the recently proposed nanoscopic quantum systems as working fluids. The latter obey quantum open system dynamics and frequently operate in non-equilibrium conditions. However, the role of this dynamics in the overall performance of quantum heat engines remains an open problem. Here, we analyse and optimize the efficiency and power output of two-stage quantum heat engines fuelled by non-equilibrium ...

Unitary drivings of quantum systems are ubiquitous in experiments and applications of quantum mechanics and the underlying energetic aspects, particularly relevant in quantum thermodynamics, are receiving growing attention. We investigate energetic advantages in unitary driving obtained from initial non-thermal states. We introduce the non-cyclic ergotropy to quantify the energetic gains, from which coherent (coherence-based) and incoherent (population-based) contributions ar...

Maximum quantum work extraction is generally defined in terms of the ergotropy functional, no matter how experimentally complicated is the implementation of the optimal unitary allowing for it, especially in the case of multipartite systems. In this framework, we consider a quantum battery made up of many interacting sub-systems and study the maximum extractable work via concurrent local unitary operations on each subsystem. We call the resulting functional parallel ergotropy...

Assigning the variations of internal energy into heat or work contributions is a challenging task due to the fact that these properties are trajectory dependent. A number of proposals have been put forward for open quantum systems following an arbitrary dynamics. We here focus on non-equilibrium thermodynamics of a two-level system and explore, in addition to the conventional approach, two definitions motivated by either classical work or heat, in which the driving Hamiltonia...

One of the fundamental issues in the field of open quantum systems is the classification and quantification of non-Markovianity. In the contest of quantity-based measures of non-Markovianity, the intuition of non-Markovianity in terms of information backflow is widely discussed. However, it is not easy to characterize the information flux for a given system state and show its connection to non-Markovianity. Here, by using the concepts from thermodynamics and information theor...

Dissipative quantum systems are frequently described within the framework of the so-called "system-plus-reservoir" approach. In this work we assign their description to the Maximum Entropy Formalism and compare the resulting thermodynamic properties with those of the well - established approaches. Due to the non-negligible coupling to the heat reservoir, these systems are non-extensive by nature, and the former task may require the use of non-extensive parameter dependent inf...

Relations similar to work and exchange fluctuations have been recently derived for open systems dynamically evolving in the presence of an ancilla. Extending these relations and constructing a non-equilibrium Helmholtz equation we derive a general expression for the energetic and entropic changes of an open quantum system undergoing a nontrivial evolution. The expressions depend only on the state of the system and the dynamical map generating the evolution. Furthermore our fo...

We show that the maximum extractable work (ergotropy) from a quantum many-body system is constrained by local athermality of an initial state and local entropy decrease brought about by quantum operations. The obtained universal bound on ergotropy implies that the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis prohibits work extraction from energy eigenstates by means of finite-time unitary operations. This no-go property implies that Planck's principle, a form of the second law of the...

Quantum work capacitances and maximal asymptotic work/energy ratios are figures of merit characterizing the robustness against noise of work extraction processes in quantum batteries formed by collections of quantum systems. In this paper we establish a direct connection between these functionals and, exploiting this result, we analyze different types of noise models mimicking self-discharging, thermalization and dephasing effects. In this context we show that input quantum c...