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arXiv:1212.6589 · Physical Review E

Fluctuation theorems for quantum processes

Tameem Albash, Daniel A. Lidar, Milad Marvian, Paolo Zanardi A

Published Sep 30, 2013• 114 citations
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Abstract

We present fluctuation theorems and moment generating function equalities for generalized thermodynamic observables and quantum dynamics described by completely positive trace preserving maps, with and without feedback control. Our results include the quantum Jarzynski equality and Crooks fluctuation theorem, and clarify the special role played by the thermodynamic work and thermal equilibrium states in previous studies. We show that for a specific class of generalized measurements, which include projective measurements, unitality replaces microreversibility as the condition for the physicality of the reverse process in our fluctuation theorems. We present an experimental application of our theory to the problem of extracting the system-bath coupling magnitude, which we do for a system of pairs of coupled superconducting flux qubits undergoing quantum annealing.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.88.032146

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We present fluctuation theorems and moment generating function equalities for generalized thermodynamic observables and quantum dynamics described by completely positive trace preserving maps, with and without feedback control. Our results include the quantum Jarzynski equality and Crooks fluctuation theorem, and clarify the special role played by the thermodynamic work and thermal equilibrium states in previous studies. We show that for a specific class of generalized measurements, which include projective measurements, unitality replaces microreversibility as the condition for the physicality of the reverse process in our fluctuation theorems. We present an experimental application of our theory to the problem of extracting the system-bath coupling magnitude, which we do for a system of pairs of coupled superconducting flux qubits undergoing quantum annealing.
A general tool for the description of open quantum systems is given by the formalism of quantum operations. The most important of these are trace-preserving maps, also known as quantum channels. We discuss those conditions on quantum channels under which the Jarzynski equality and related fluctuation theorems hold. It is essential that the representing quantum channel be unital. Under this condition, we first derive the corresponding Jarzynski equality. For a bistochastic map and its adjoint, we further formulate a theorem of Tasaki–Crooks type. In the context of unital channels, some notes on heat transfer between two quantum systems are given. We also consider the case of a finite system operated on by an external agent with feedback control. When unital channels are applied at the first stage and, for a mutual-information form, at the further ones, we obtain quantum Jarzynski–Sagawa–Ueda relations. These are extensions of the previously given results to unital quantum operations.
The transient quantum fluctuation theorems of Crooks and Jarzynski restrict and relate the statistics of work performed in forward and backward forcing protocols. So far, these theorems have been obtained under the assumption that the work is determined by two projective energy measurements, one at the end, and the other one at the beginning of each run of the protocol. We found that one can replace these two projective measurements only by special error-free generalized energy measurements with pairs of tailored, protocol-dependent post-measurement states that satisfy detailed balance-like relations. For other generalized measurements, the Crooks relation is typically not satisfied. For the validity of the Jarzynski equality, it is sufficient that the first energy measurements are error-free and the post-measurement states form a complete orthonormal set of elements in the Hilbert space of the considered system. Additionally, the effects of the second energy measurements must have unit trace. We illustrate our results by an example of a two-level system for different generalized measurements.
We present a general quantum fluctuation theorem for the entropy production of an open quantum system coupled to multiple environments, not necessarily at equilibrium. Such a general theorem, when restricted to the weak-coupling and Markovian regime, holds for both local and global master equations, corroborating the thermodynamic consistency of local quantum master equations. The theorem is genuinely quantum, as it can be expressed in terms of conservation of a Hermitian operator, describing the dynamics of the system state operator and of the entropy change in the baths. The integral fluctuation theorem follows from the properties of such an operator. Furthermore, it is also valid when the system is described by a time-dependent Hamiltonian. As such, the quantum Jarzynski equality is a particular case of the general result presented here. Moreover, our result can be extended to nonthermal baths, as long as microreversibility is preserved. We present some numerical examples to showcase the exact results previously obtained. We finally generalize the fluctuation theorem to the case where the interaction between the system and the bath is explicitly taken into account. We show that the fluctuation theorem amounts to a relation between time-reversed dynamics of the global density matrix and a two-time correlation function along the forward dynamics involving the baths' entropy alone.
In this study, we rederive the fluctuation theorems in the presence of feedback by assuming the known Jarzynski equality and detailed fluctuation theorems. We find that both the classical and quantum systems can be analyzed using a similar treatment in terms of state space trajectories. We first briefly reproduce the already known work theorems for a classical system in order to show its equivalence with the quantum treatment. We then extend the treatment to arrive at new results, namely the generalizations of Seifert's entropy production theorem and the Hatano–Sasa fluctuation theorem, in the presence of feedback. We have also derived the extended version of the Tasaki–Crooks fluctuation theorem for a quantum particle in the presence of multiple loop feedback. For deriving the extended quantum fluctuation theorems, we have considered open systems. No assumption is made on the nature of environment and the strength of system–bath coupling. However, it is assumed that the measurement process involves classical errors.
The probability densities of work that can be exerted on a quantum system initially staying in thermal equilibrium are constrained by the fluctuation relations of Jarzynski and Crooks, when the work is determined by two projective energy measurements. We investigate the question whether these fluctuation relations may still hold if one employs generalized energy measurements rather than projective ones. Restricting ourselves to a class of universal measurements which are independent of several details of the system on which the work is done, we find sets of necessary and sufficient conditions for the Jarzynski equality and the Crooks relation. The Jarzynski equality requires perfect accuracy for the initial measurement, while the final one can be erroneous. On the other hand, the Crooks relation can only tolerate a depolarizing channel as a deviation from the projective measurement for systems with a finite-dimensional Hilbert space. For a separable infinite-dimensional space only projective measurements are compatible with the Crooks relation. The results we have obtained significantly extend those of Venkatesh, Watanabe, and Talkner [New J. Phys. 16, 015032 (2014)] as well as avoid some errors present there.
Jarzynski equality and related fluctuation theorems can be formulated for various setups. Such an equality was recently derived for nonunitary quantum evolutions described by unital quantum operations, i.e., for completely positive, trace-preserving maps, which preserve the maximally mixed state. We analyze here a more general case of arbitrary quantum operations on finite systems and derive the corresponding form of the Jarzynski equality. It contains a correction term due to nonunitality of the quantum map. Bounds for the relative size of this correction term are established and they are applied for exemplary systems subjected to quantum channels acting on a finite-dimensional Hilbert space.