Quantum thermodynamics addresses the emergence of thermodynamic laws from quantum mechanics. The viewpoint advocated is based on the intimate connection of quantum thermodynamics with the theory of open quantum systems. Quantum mechanics inserts dynamics into thermodynamics, giving a sound foundation to finite-time-thermodynamics. The emergence of the 0-law, I-law, II-law and III-law of thermodynamics from quantum considerations is presented. The emphasis is on consistency between the two theories, which address the same subject from different foundations. We claim that inconsistency is the result of faulty analysis, pointing to flaws in approximations.
Quantum thermodynamics addresses the emergence of thermodynamic laws from quantum mechanics. The viewpoint advocated is based on the intimate connection of quantum thermodynamics with the theory of open quantum systems. Quantum mechanics inserts dynamics into thermodynamics, giving a sound foundation to finite-time-thermodynamics. The emergence of the 0-law, I-law, II-law and III-law of thermodynamics from quantum considerations is presented. The emphasis is on consistency between the two theories, which address the same subject from different foundations. We claim that inconsistency is the result of faulty analysis, pointing to flaws in approximations.
Thermodynamics is built with the concept of equilibrium states. However, it is less clear how equilibrium thermodynamics emerges through the dynamics that follows the principle of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we develop a theory of quantum thermodynamics that is applicable for arbitrary small systems, even for single particle systems coupled with a reservoir. We generalize the concept of temperature beyond equilibrium that depends on the detailed dynamics of quantum states. We apply the theory to a cavity system and a two-level system interacting with a reservoir, respectively. The results unravels (1) the emergence of thermodynamics naturally from the exact quantum dynamics in the weak system-reservoir coupling regime without introducing the hypothesis of equilibrium between the system and the reservoir from the beginning; (2) the emergence of thermodynamics in the intermediate system-reservoir coupling regime where the Born-Markovian approximation is broken down; (3) the breakdown of thermodynamics due to the long-time non-Markovian memory effect arisen from the occurrence of localized bound states; (4) the existence of dynamical quantum phase transition characterized by inflationary dynamics associated with negative dynamical temperature. The corresponding dynamical criticality provides a border separating classical and quantum worlds. The inflationary dynamics may also relate to the origin of big bang and universe inflation. And the third law of thermodynamics, allocated in the deep quantum realm, is naturally proved.
Questions about the route from a nonequilibrium initial state to the final global equilibrium have played an important role since the early days of phenomenological thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Nowadays, their implications reach from central technical devices of the contemporary human society, like heat engines, refrigerators and computers to recent physics at almost all length scales, from Bose-Einstein-condensation and superconductors to black holes. This work addresses the foundation of macroscopic laws concerning the decay to equilibrium, e.g. the celebrated Fourier's Law, on microscopic Schrödingerian quantum dynamics. Here, a proper treatment requires the usage of modern methods in theoretical physics such as the Theory of Open Quantum Systems, the Kubo Formula in Liouville Space and the novel Hilbert Space Average Method. It turns out that both the relaxation to equilibrium as well as the transport of heat is mainly determined by quantum effects comparable to the role of entanglement in considerations of the global equilibrium within Quantum Thermodynamics. Finally, the foundation of phenomenological thermodynamics on a microscopic theory will hopefully improve our understanding of those most impressive and far-reaching theories and their background and will possibly open the way to overcoming their nanoscopic limits.
In a series of papers, we intend to take the perspective of open quantum systems and examine from their nonequilibrium dynamics the conditions when the physical quantities, their relations, and the laws of thermodynamics become well defined and viable for quantum many-body systems. We first describe how an open-system nonequilibrium dynamics (ONEq) approach is different from the closed combined system + environment in a global thermal state (CGTs) setup. Only after the open system equilibrates will it be amenable to conventional thermodynamics descriptions, thus quantum thermodynamics (QTD) comes at the end rather than assumed in the beginning. The linkage between the two comes from the reduced density matrix of ONEq in that stage having the same form as that of the system in the CGTs. We see the open-system approach having the advantage of dealing with nonequilibrium processes as many experiments in the near future will call for. Because it spells out the conditions of QTD's existence, it can also aid us in addressing the basic issues in quantum thermodynamics from first principles in a systematic way. We then study one broad class of open quantum systems where the full nonequilibrium dynamics can be solved exactly, that of the quantum Brownian motion of N strongly coupled harmonic oscillators, interacting strongly with a scalar-field environment. In this paper, we focus on the internal energy, heat capacity, and the third law. We show for this class of physical models, amongst other findings, the extensive property of the internal energy, the positivity of the heat capacity, and the validity of the third law from the perspective of the behavior of the heat capacity toward zero temperature. These conclusions obtained from exact solutions and quantitative analysis clearly disprove claims of negative specific heat in such systems and dispel allegations that in such systems the validity of the third law of thermodynamics relies on quantum entanglement. They are conceptually and factually unrelated issues. Entropy and entanglement will be the main theme of our second paper on this subject matter.
Deriving the laws of thermodynamics from a microscopic picture is a central quest of statistical mechanics.This tutorial focuses on the derivation of the first and second law for isolated and open quantum systems far from equilibrium, where such foundational questions also become practically relevant for emergent nanotechnologies.The derivation is based on a microscopic definition of five essential quantities: internal energy, thermodynamic entropy, work, heat, and temperature.These definitions are shown to satisfy the phenomenological laws of nonequilibrium thermodynamics for a large class of states and processes.The consistency with previous results is demonstrated.The framework applies to multiple baths including particle transport and accounts for processes with, e.g., a changing temperature of the bath, which is determined microscopically.An integral fluctuation theorem for entropy production is satisfied.In summary, this tutorial introduces a consistent and versatile framework to understand and apply the laws of thermodynamics in the quantum regime and beyond.
Traditional answers to what the 2nd Law is are well known. Some are based on the microstate of a system wandering rapidly through all accessible phase space, while others are based on the idea of a system occupying an initial multitude of states due to the inevitable imperfections of measurements that then effectively, in a coarse grained manner, grow in time (mixing). What has emerged are two somewhat less traditional approaches from which it is said that the 2nd Law emerges, namely, that of the theory of quantum open systems and that of the theory of typicality. These are the two principal approaches, which form the basis of what today has come to be called quantum thermodynamics. However, their dynamics remains strictly linear and unitary, and, as a number of recent publications have emphasized, “testing the unitary propagation of pure states alone cannot rule out a nonlinear propagation of mixtures”. Thus, a non-traditional approach to capturing such a propagation would be one which complements the postulates of QM by the 2nd Law of thermodynamics, resulting in a possibly meaningful, nonlinear dynamics. An unorthodox approach, which does just that, is intrinsic quantum thermodynamics and its mathematical framework, steepest-entropy-ascent quantum thermodynamics. The latter has evolved into an effective tool for modeling the dynamics of reactive and non-reactive systems at atomistic scales. It is the usefulness of this framework in the context of quantum thermodynamics as well as the theory of typicality which are discussed here in some detail. A brief discussion of some other trends such as those related to work, work extraction, and fluctuation theorems is also presented.
One of the fundamental questions in the emerging field of quantum thermodynamics is the role played by coherence in energetic processes that occur at the quantum level. Here we address this issue by investigating two different quantum versions of the first law of thermodynamics, derived from the classical definitions of work and heat. By doing so, we find out that there exists a mathematical inconsistency between both scenarios. We further show that the energetic contribution of the dynamics of coherence is the key ingredient to establish the consistency. Some examples involving two-level atomic systems are discussed in order to illustrate our findings.