We formulate a complete theory of quantum thermodynamics in the Rényi entropic formalism exploiting the Rényi relative entropies, starting from the maximum entropy principle. In establishing the first and second laws of quantum thermodynamics, we have correctly identified accessible work and heat exchange in both equilibrium and nonequilibrium cases. The free energy (internal energy minus temperature times entropy) remains unaltered, when all the entities entering this relation are suitably defined. Exploiting Rényi relative entropies we have shown that this "form invariance" holds even beyond equilibrium and has profound operational significance in isothermal process. These results reduce to the Gibbs-von Neumann results when the Rényi entropic parameter α approaches 1. Moreover, it is shown that the universality of the Carnot statement of the second law is the consequence of the form invariance of the free energy, which is in turn the consequence of maximum entropy principle. Further, the Clausius inequality, which is the precursor to the Carnot statement, is also shown to hold based on the data processing inequalities for the traditional and sandwiched Rényi relative entropies. Thus, we find that the thermodynamics of nonequilibrium state and its deviation from equilibrium together determine the thermodynamic laws. This is another important manifestation of the concepts of information theory in thermodynamics when they are extended to the quantum realm. Our work is a substantial step towards formulating a complete theory of quantum thermodynamics and corresponding resource theory.
A theory of thermodynamics has been recently formulated and derived on the basis of Rényi entropy and its relative versions. In this framework, we define the concepts of partition function, internal energy and free energy, and fundamental quantum thermodynamical inequalities are deduced. In the context of Rényi's thermodynamics, the variational Helmholtz principle is stated and the condition of equilibrium is analyzed. The Rényi maximum entropy principle is formulated and the equality case is discussed. The obtained results reduce to the von Neumann ones when the Rényi entropic parameter
α approaches 1. The Heisenberg and Schrödinger uncertainty principles on the measurements of quantum observables are revisited. The presentation is self-contained and the proofs only use standard matrix analysis techniques.
Using arguments built on ergodicity, we derive an analytical expression for the Renyi entanglement entropies which, we conjecture, applies to the finite-energy density eigenstates of chaotic many-body Hamiltonians. The expression is a universal function of the density of states and is valid even when the subsystem is a finite fraction of the total system-a regime in which the reduced density matrix is not thermal. We find that in the thermodynamic limit, only the von Neumann entropy density is independent of the subsystem to the total system ratio V_{A}/V, while the Renyi entropy densities depend nonlinearly on V_{A}/V. Surprisingly, Renyi entropies S_{n} for n>1 are convex functions of the subsystem size, with a volume law coefficient that depends on V_{A}/V, and exceeds that of a thermal mixed state at the same energy density. We provide two different arguments to support our results: the first one relies on a many-body version of Berry's formula for chaotic quantum-mechanical systems, and is closely related to the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. The second argument relies on the assumption that for a fixed energy in a subsystem, all states in its complement allowed by the energy conservation are equally likely. We perform an exact diagonalization study on quantum spin-chain Hamiltonians to test our analytical predictions.
Using a Wigner-function-based approach, we study the Renyi entropy of a subsystem
A of a system of bosons interacting with a local repulsive potential. The full system is assumed to be in thermal equilibrium at a temperature
T and density $\ensuremath{\rho}$. For a
U(N)-symmetric model, we show that the Renyi entropy of the system in the large-
N limit can be understood in terms of an effective noninteracting system with a spatially varying mean field potential, which has to be determined self-consistently. The Renyi entropy is the sum of two terms: (a) the Renyi entropy of this effective system and (b) the difference in thermal free energy between the effective system and the original translation-invariant system, scaled by
T. We determine the self-consistent equation for this effective potential within a saddle-point approximation. We use this formalism to look at one- and two-dimensional Bose gases on a lattice. In both cases, the potential profile is that of a square well, taking one value in subsystem
A and a different value outside it. The potential varies in space near the boundary of subsystem
A on the scale of density-density correlation length. The effect of interaction on the entanglement entropy density is determined by the ratio of the potential barrier to the temperature and peaks at an intermediate temperature, while the high- and low-temperature regimes are dominated by the noninteracting answer.
We derive the quantum Fisher information for entropy estimation in a Gibbs state and show that it equals the inverse of the heat capacity, which is dual to the temperature Fisher information given by the heat capacity divided by the square of the temperature. Their product is independent of the Hamiltonian and depends only on the temperature, leading to a metrological uncertainty relation between the variances of entropy and temperature estimators in which all system-specific quantities cancel. This relation arises from the dually-flat structure of the Gibbs exponential family expressed in thermodynamic coordinates, and holds for all standard thermodynamically conjugate pairs. We identify energy measurement as the optimal protocol for entropy estimation, analyse critical-point scaling where the entropy Fisher information vanishes, and connect it to the Ruppeiner metric in entropy coordinates. We lastly examine the distinguished role of the von Neumann entropy within the Rényi family. Generalisations to the grand canonical and generalised Gibbs ensembles are given.