The problem of extracting the work from a quantum-thermodynamic system driven by slowly varying external parameters is discussed. It is shown that there naturally emerges a gauge-theoretic structure. The field strength identically vanishes if the system is in an equilibrium state, i.e., the nonvanishing field strength implies that the system is in a nonequilibrium quasi-stationary state. The work done through a cyclic process in the parameter space is given in terms of the flux of the field. This general formalism is applied to an example of a single spin in a varying magnetic field, and the maximum power output is discussed in a given finite-time cyclic process.
The problem of extracting the work from a quantum-thermodynamic system driven by slowly varying external parameters is discussed. It is shown that there naturally emerges a gauge-theoretic structure. The field strength identically vanishes if the system is in an equilibrium state, i.e., the nonvanishing field strength implies that the system is in a nonequilibrium quasi-stationary state. The work done through a cyclic process in the parameter space is given in terms of the flux of the field. This general formalism is applied to an example of a single spin in a varying magnetic field, and the maximum power output is discussed in a given finite-time cyclic process.
We apply advanced methods of control theory to open quantum systems and we determine finite-time processes which are optimal with respect to thermodynamic performances. General properties and necessary conditions characterizing optimal drivings are derived, obtaining bang-bang-type solutions corresponding to control strategies switching between adiabatic and isothermal transformations. A direct application of these results is the maximization of the work produced by a generic quantum heat engine, where we show that the maximum power is directly linked to a particular conserved quantity naturally emerging from the control problem. Finally we apply our general approach to the specific case of a two-level system, which can be put in contact with two different baths at fixed temperatures, identifying the processes that minimize heat dissipation. Moreover, we explicitly solve the optimization problem for a cyclic two-level heat engine driven beyond the linear-response regime, determining the corresponding optimal cycle, the maximum power, and the efficiency at maximum power.
Classical thermodynamics admits a geometric formulation in which work is associated with areas enclosed by cycles in state space. Whether an analogous structure persists in driven, dissipative quantum systems remains an open question. Here we show that quasistatic work in open quantum steady states is governed by an emergent geometric curvature in control-parameter space arising from steady-state coherence. For a driven dissipative two-level system, we construct a work one-form whose curvature determines the work produced in cyclic processes. The work vanishes under strong dephasing, identifying coherence as a necessary condition for nontrivial geometry. However, its magnitude is set not by the coherence itself but by the spatial structure of the curvature: cycles enclosing comparable areas produce different work depending on their location in parameter space. Reversing the cycle orientation reverses the sign of the work, confirming its geometric origin. These results establish a geometric framework for open quantum thermodynamics and identify curvature as the organizing principle of thermodynamic response, with direct implications for driven light--matter systems in cavity quantum electrodynamics.
Although the idea of combining thermodynamics with quantum mechanics is more than a century old, quantum thermodynamics has seen significant development over the past few decades. Understanding work, heat, and entropy in the quantum regime has become increasingly important, particularly in light of advances in quantum technologies. This thesis investigates work processes in quantum spin chains. Quantum work processes can involve genuinely quantum features such as entanglement, coherence, and measurement back-action, which are absent in classical thermodynamic descriptions, making their characterization an area of ongoing interest in quantum thermodynamics. Focusing first on a single work step, we show that the frictional work due to finite-time driving for a non-integrable quantum spin chain can be well quantified by the diagonal entropy production. We further demonstrate that integrability breaking enhances work extraction in the adiabatic limit, while suppressing it in the non-adiabatic regime. We then study a quantum Otto cycle using the transverse-field Ising model as the working substance. We determine how different types of operation (engine, refrigerator, accelerator, heater) can emerge for different parameter regimes. We show that with infinitesimal work strokes, a thermal machine behaves either as an engine or an accelerator, and that these regimes can be characterized by equilibrium transverse magnetization. At low temperatures, these regimes are governed by low-energy excitations, while at high temperatures they follow from a free-energy expansion in inverse temperature. Frictional effects can emerge and suppress the engine performance during non-adiabatic driving. We show that these effects can be mitigated using an optimised drive protocol based on a geometric formulation of the path of the system through parameter space. Overall, this thesis provides a comprehensive understanding of how integrability, coherence, finite-time driving, and non-adiabatic transitions govern work extraction and thermal machine operation in quantum spin chains, and paves the way for understanding these processes in other quantum many-body systems.
We formulate a geometric framework for quasistatic thermodynamics in open quantum systems by parameterizing the dynamics on a control manifold. In the quasistatic limit, the system follows a manifold of stationary states, and the work performed over a cycle is given by the flux of a curvature two-form, W∼∫Ω, defined by the parametric response of the stationary state, establishing an open-system analog of classical thermodynamic area laws. \erbedit{For thermal stationary states at fixed temperature, the curvature vanishes, reflecting the integrability of the work one-form.} Beyond this limit, nonequilibrium stationary states can retain coherence in the energy representation; using a fixed-basis Lindblad model, we show that this coherence reshapes the curvature, making it anisotropic and sign-changing, so that work depends sensitively on the placement and orientation of the cycle. Quantum coherence, therefore, partitions the control manifold into regions of opposite curvature, producing geometric cancellation of work and allowing the net work over a cycle to be reduced or reversed despite dissipative dynamics. Thermodynamic work thus emerges as a curvature flux whose structure is set by thermodynamic response in classical systems and by basis misalignment between the Hamiltonian eigenbasis and the environment-selected pointer basis in open quantum systems.
We investigate a finite-time quantum Otto engine within the framework of gauge-invariant quantum thermodynamics, using the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model as the working medium. In this formulation, thermodynamic quantities are defined on equivalence classes of thermodynamically indistinguishable states, leading naturally to gauge-invariant notions of work, heat, entropy, and efficiency. We derive explicit expressions for these quantities and show that the usual work performed during the unitary strokes decomposes into an invariant contribution, associated with changes in the instantaneous energy spectrum and populations, and a coherent contribution arising from finite-time quantum coherences. This decomposition induces the corresponding splittings of engine efficiency and entropy production, providing a geometric interpretation of finite-time irreversibility and clarifying the role of coherence in work extraction. By analyzing the cycle's dependence on driving speed and system size, we identify the engine's operating region and investigate the influence of criticality. We show that crossing the critical region substantially reduces the parameter space in which the cycle operates as a heat engine. At the same time, whenever the engine condition remains satisfied, the discrepancy between the conventional and gauge-invariant descriptions becomes strongly suppressed, indicating that the gauge-invariant sector predominantly carries the extracted work. These results establish a direct connection between gauge-invariant thermodynamics, finite-time irreversibility, and work extraction in many-body quantum thermal machines.
We develop a perturbation theory of quantum (and classical) master equations with slowly varying parameters, applicable to systems which are externally controlled on a time scale much longer than their characteristic relaxation time. We apply this technique to the analysis of finite-time isothermal processes in which, differently from quasistatic transformations, the state of the system is not able to continuously relax to the equilibrium ensemble. Our approach allows one to formally evaluate perturbations up to arbitrary order to the work and heat exchange associated with an arbitrary process. Within first order in the perturbation expansion, we identify a general formula for the efficiency at maximum power of a finite-time Carnot engine. We also clarify under which assumptions and in which limit one can recover previous phenomenological results as, for example, the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency.