From Quantum Dynamics to the Second Law of Thermodynamics

In a macroscopic (quantum or classical) Hamiltonian system, we prove the second law of thermodynamics in the forms of the minimum work principle and the law of entropy increase, under the assumption that the initial state is described by a general equilibrium distribution. Therefore the second law is a logical necessity once we accept equilibrium statistical mechanics.

We describe recent progress towards deriving the Fundamental Laws of thermodynamics (the 0th, 1st and 2nd Law) from nonequilibrium quantum statistical mechanics in simple, yet physically relevant models. Along the way, we clarify some basic thermodynamic notions and discuss various reversible and irreversible thermodynamic processes from the point of view of quantum statistical mechanics.

Based only on classical Hamiltonian dynamics, we prove the maximum work principle in a system where macroscopic dynamical degrees of freedom are intrinsically coupled to microscopic degrees of freedom. Unlike recent identities between irreversible work and free energy, such as in the Jarzynski relation, the macroscopic dynamics is not governed by an external action but undergoes the back reaction of the microscopic degrees of freedom. Our theorems cover such physical situatio...

Quantum thermodynamics addresses the emergence of thermodynamical laws from quantum mechanics. The link is based on the intimate connection of quantum thermodynamics with the theory of open quantum systems. Quantum mechanics inserts dynamics into thermodynamics giving a sound foundation to finite-time-thermodynamics. The emergence of the 0-law I-law II-law and III-law of thermodynamics from quantum considerations is presented. The emphasis is on consistence between the two th...

In order to describe quantum heat engines, here we systematically study isothermal and isochoric processes for quantum thermodynamic cycles. Based on these results the quantum versions of both the Carnot heat engine and the Otto heat engine are defined without ambiguities. We also study the properties of quantum Carnot and Otto heat engines in comparison with their classical counterparts. Relations and mappings between these two quantum heat engines are also investigated by c...

By computing the local energy expectation values with respect to some local measurement basis we show that for any quantum system there are two fundamentally different contributions: changes in energy that do not alter the local von Neumann entropy and changes that do. We identify the former as work and the latter as heat. Since our derivation makes no assumptions on the system Hamiltonian or its state, the result is valid even for states arbitrarily far from equilibrium. Exa...

Quantum work is usually determined from two projective measurements of the energy at the beginning and at the end of a thermodynamic process. However, this paradigm cannot be considered thermodynamically consistent as it does not account for the thermodynamic cost of these measurements. To remedy this conceptual inconsistency we introduce a novel paradigm that relies only on the expected change of the average energy given the initial energy eigenbasis. In particular, we compl...

We present a critical examination of the difficulties with the quantum versions of a lifted weight that are widely used as work storage systems in quantum thermodynamics. To overcome those difficulties, we turn to the strong connections between information and thermodynamics illuminated by Szilard's engine and Landauer's principle, and consider the concept of informational work storage. This concept is in sharp contrast with the usual one of mechanical work storage underlying...

Originally formulated for macroscopic machines, the laws of thermodynamics were recently shown to hold for quantum systems coupled to ideal sources of work (external classical fields) and heat (systems at equilibrium). Ongoing efforts have been focusing on extending the validity of thermodynamic laws to more realistic, non-ideal energy sources. Here, we go beyond these extensions and show that energy exchanges between arbitrary quantum systems are structured by the laws of th...

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...