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arXiv:0811.3687 · New Journal of Physics

The fluctuation theorem for currents in open quantum systems

David Andrieux, Pierre Gaspard, Takaaki Monnai, S Tasaki

Published Apr 7, 2009• 210 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A quantum-mechanical framework is set up to describe the full counting statistics of particles flowing between reservoirs in an open system under time-dependent driving. A symmetry relation is obtained, which is the consequence of microreversibility for the probability of the nonequilibrium work and the transfer of particles and energy between the reservoirs. In some appropriate long-time limit, the symmetry relation leads to a steady-state quantum fluctuation theorem for the currents between the reservoirs. On this basis, relationships are deduced which extend the Onsager–Casimir reciprocity relations to the nonlinear response coefficients.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/11/4/043014

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A quantum-mechanical framework is set up to describe the full counting statistics of particles flowing between reservoirs in an open system under time-dependent driving. A symmetry relation is obtained, which is the consequence of microreversibility for the probability of the nonequilibrium work and the transfer of particles and energy between the reservoirs. In some appropriate long-time limit, the symmetry relation leads to a steady-state quantum fluctuation theorem for the currents between the reservoirs. On this basis, relationships are deduced which extend the Onsager–Casimir reciprocity relations to the nonlinear response coefficients.
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The multivariate fluctuation relation is established for the full counting statistics of the energy and particle fluxes across an open quantum system in contact with several reservoirs on the basis of microreversibility The quantum version of the nonequilibrium work fluctuation relation is recovered in the presence of a single reservoir. In the long-time limit, the time-reversal symmetry relation is expressed in terms of the cumulative generating function for the full counting statistics. In systems with independent particles, the symmetry relation can be obtained in the scattering approach for the transport of bosons and fermions. The temporal disorder and its time asymmetry can be characterized by the quantum version of the entropy and coentropy per unit time. Their difference gives the thermodynamic entropy production rate. Furthermore, the stochastic approach is also considered for electron transport in quantum dots, quantum point contacts, and single-electron transistors.
Symmetry is a powerful concept in physics, and its recent application to understand nonequilibrium behavior is providing deep insights and groundbreaking exact results. Here we show how to harness symmetry to control transport and statistics in open quantum systems. Such control is enabled by a first-order-type dynamic phase transition in current statistics and the associated coexistence of different transport channels (or nonequilibrium steady states) classified by symmetry. Microreversibility then ensues, via the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem, a twin dynamic phase transition for rare current fluctuations. Interestingly, the symmetry present in the initial state is spontaneously broken at the fluctuating level, where the quantum system selects the symmetry sector that maximally facilitates a given fluctuation. We illustrate these results in a qubit network model motivated by the problem of coherent energy harvesting in photosynthetic complexes, and introduce the concept of a symmetry-controlled quantum thermal switch, suggesting symmetry-based design strategies for quantum devices with controllable transport properties.
We provide a general macrostatistical formulation of nonequilibrium steady states of reservoir driven quantum systems. This formulation is centered on the large scale properties of the locally conserved hydrodynamical observables, and our basic physical assumptions comprise (a) a chaoticity hypothesis for the nonconserved currents carried by these observables, (b) an extension of Onsager's regression hypothesis to fluctuations about nonequilibrium states, and (c) a certain mesoscopic local equilibrium hypothesis. On this basis, we obtain a picture wherein the fluctuations of the hydrodynamical variables about a nonequilibrium steady state execute a Gaussian Markov process of a generalized Onsager–Machlup type, which is completely determined by the position dependent transport coefficients and the equilibrium entropy function of the system. This picture reveals that the transport coefficients satisfy a generalized form of the Onsager reciprocity relations in the nonequilibrium situation and that the spatial correlations of the hydrodynamical observables are generically of long range. This last result constitutes a model-independent quantum mechanical generalization of that obtained for special classical stochastic systems and marks a striking difference between the steady nonequilibrium and equilibrium states, since it is only at critical points that the latter carry long range correlations.
Fluctuation theorems (FTs), which describe some universal properties of nonequilibrium fluctuations, are examined from a quantum perspective and derived by introducing a two-point measurement on the system. FTs for closed and open systems driven out of equilibrium by an external time-dependent force, and for open systems maintained in a nonequilibrium steady state by nonequilibrium boundary conditions, are derived from a unified approach. Applications to fermion and boson transport in quantum junctions are discussed. Quantum master equations and Green's functions techniques for computing the energy and particle statistics are presented.
Scattering theory is complemented by recent results on full counting statistics, the multivariate fluctuation relation for currents, and time asymmetry in temporal disorder characterized by the Connes‐Narnhofer‐Thirring entropy per unit time, in order to establish relationships with the thermodynamics of quantum transport. Fluctuations in the bosonic or fermionic currents flowing across an open system in contact with particle reservoirs are described by their cumulant generating function, which obeys the multivariate fluctuation relation as the consequence of microreversibility. Time asymmetry in temporal disorder is shown to manifest itself out of equilibrium in the difference between a time‐reversed coentropy and the Connes‐Narnhofer‐Thirring entropy per unit time. This difference is shown to be equal to the thermodynamic entropy production for ideal quantum gases of bosons and fermions. The results are illustrated for a two‐terminal circuit. image