From Quantum Dynamics to the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Entropy is the distinguishing and most important concept of our efforts to understand and regularize our observations of a very large class of natural phenomena, and yet, it is one of the most contentious concepts of physics. In this article, we review two expositions of thermodynamics, one without reference to quantum theory, and the other quantum mechanical without probabilities of statistical mechanics. In the first, we show that entropy is an inherent property of any syst...

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...

We investigate fundamental connections between thermodynamics and quantum information theory. First, we show that the operational framework of thermal operations is nonequivalent to the framework of Gibbs-preserving maps, and we comment on this gap. We then introduce a fully information-theoretic framework generalizing the above by making further abstraction of physical quantities such as energy. It is technically convenient to work with and reproduces known results for finit...

We study how Thomson's formulation of the second law: no work is extracted from an equilibrium ensemble by a cyclic process, emerges in the quantum situation through the averaging over fluctuations of work. The latter concept is carefully defined for an ensemble of quantum systems interacting with macroscopic sources of work. The approach is based on first splitting a mixed quantum ensemble into pure subensembles, which according to quantum mechanics are maximally complete an...

Regarded as one of the most fundamental concepts of classical mechanics and thermodynamics, work has received well-grounded definitions within the quantum framework since the 1970s, having being successfully applied to many contexts. Recent developments on the concept have taken place in the emergent field of quantum thermodynamics, where work is frequently characterized as a stochastic variable. Notwithstanding this remarkable progress, it is still debatable whether some sen...

A pedagogical derivation of statistical mechanics from quantum mechanics is provided, by means of open quantum systems. Besides, a new definition of Boltzmann entropy for a quantum closed system is also given to count microstates in a way consistent with the superposition principle. In particular, this new Boltzmann entropy is a constant that depends only on the dimension of the system's relevant Hilbert subspace. Finally, thermodynamics for quantum systems is investigated fo...

In his Comment [1], Philip Strasberg (PS) argues from the analysis of different examples that the framework we have presented in [2] does not recover known results of macroscopic textbook thermodynamics. Here, we show that such apparent contradictions disappear when the necessary assumptions the aforementioned known results pre-suppose are applied. Those assumptions concern the control ability of the observer, the nature of the described degree of freedom, or the scale of the...

Thermodynamics teaches that if a system initially off-equilibrium is coupled to work sources, the maximum work that it may yield is governed by its energy and entropy. For finite systems this bound is usually not reachable. The maximum extractable work compatible with quantum mechanics (``ergotropy'') is derived and expressed in terms of the density matrix and the Hamiltonian. It is related to the property of majorization: more major states can provide more work. Scenarios of...

The minimal set of thermodynamic control parameters consists of a statistical (thermal) and a mechanical one. These suffice to introduce all the pertinent thermodynamic variables; thermodynamic processes can then be defined as paths on this 2-dimensional control plane. Putting aside coherence we show that for a large class of quantum objects with discrete spectra and for the cycles considered the Carnot efficiency applies as a universal upper bound. In the dynamic (finite tim...

Work extraction from a heat engine in a cycle by a quantum mechanical device (quantum "piston") is analyzed. The standard definition of work fails in the quantum domain. The correct extractable work and its efficiency bound are shown to crucially depend on the initial quantum state of the piston. The transient efficiency bound may exceed the standard Carnot bound, although it complies with the second law. Energy gain (e.g. in lasing) is shown to drastically differ from work g...