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arXiv:2409.06083 · Physical review. E

Information geometry approach to quantum stochastic thermodynamics

Laetitia P. Bettmann, John Goold

Published Jan 16, 2025• 21 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recent advancements have revealed new links between information geometry and classical stochastic thermodynamics, particularly through the Fisher information (FI) with respect to time. Recognizing the nonuniqueness of the quantum Fisher metric in Hilbert space, we exploit the fact that any quantum Fisher information (QFI) can be decomposed into a metric-independent incoherent part and a metric-dependent coherent contribution. We demonstrate that the incoherent component of any QFI can be directly linked to entropic acceleration, and for GKSL dynamics with local detailed balance, to the rate of change of generalized thermodynamic forces and entropic flow, paralleling the classical results. Furthermore, we tighten a classical uncertainty relation between the geometric uncertainty of a path in state space and the time-averaged rate of information change and demonstrate that it also holds for quantum systems. We generalize a classical geometric bound on the entropy rate for far-from-equilibrium processes by incorporating a nonnegative quantum contribution that arises from the geometric action due to coherent dynamics. Finally, we apply an information-geometric analysis to the recently proposed quantum-thermodynamic Mpemba effect, demonstrating this framework's ability to capture thermodynamic phenomena.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.111.014133

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Recent advancements have revealed new links between information geometry and classical stochastic thermodynamics, particularly through the Fisher information (FI) with respect to time. Recognizing the nonuniqueness of the quantum Fisher metric in Hilbert space, we exploit the fact that any quantum Fisher information (QFI) can be decomposed into a metric-independent incoherent part and a metric-dependent coherent contribution. We demonstrate that the incoherent component of any QFI can be directly linked to entropic acceleration, and for GKSL dynamics with local detailed balance, to the rate of change of generalized thermodynamic forces and entropic flow, paralleling the classical results. Furthermore, we tighten a classical uncertainty relation between the geometric uncertainty of a path in state space and the time-averaged rate of information change and demonstrate that it also holds for quantum systems. We generalize a classical geometric bound on the entropy rate for far-from-equilibrium processes by incorporating a nonnegative quantum contribution that arises from the geometric action due to coherent dynamics. Finally, we apply an information-geometric analysis to the recently proposed quantum-thermodynamic Mpemba effect, demonstrating this framework's ability to capture thermodynamic phenomena.
In this thesis, we study nonequilibrium statistical mechanics from a geometric perspective.In particular, we (i) examine the relation between quantum information geometry and linear response theory, and (ii) analyze nonequilibrium processes in thermodynamic control and derive a geometric expression for work.The first original study in this thesis is to understand quantum information geometry based on linear response theory.We show that the quantum Fisher information can be determined by measuring the linear response functions.For that purpose, we generalize the fluctuationdissipation theorem, and establish the quantitative relation between linear response functions and the generalized covariance, which contains the same amount of information on the quantum state.Based on the generalized fluctuation-dissipation theorem, we can determine the generalized covariance and the quantum Fisher information by measuring linear response functions, such as the dynamical susceptibilities and the complex admittances for all frequencies.We demonstrate that our result is applicable to experimental determination of the skew information, and a validation of skew information-based uncertainty relations.The second original study is on the analysis of work in thermodynamic control.We extend the thermodynamic metric-based expression for work into two directions.One is to obtain a systematic expansion of the average work from a phenomenological argument, and the other is to obtain an expansion of the work distribution for overdamped Langevin systems.First, we derive a systematic expansion of the work in terms of a small parameter ϵ that characterizes how slowly we control the system.The leading-order contribution is given by the thermodynamic metric expression.The next leading-order contributions to the thermodynamic metric contribution can be detected by comparing the excess work in a forward control and a backward control, and are predicted to scale as 1/T 2 as a function of the total control time T .Since the expansion is derived without assuming any specific microscopic dynamics, it is valid as long as the perturbation series expansion is valid.Finally, we examine the work distribution in overdamped Langevin systems.We derive the time evolution equation for the moment generating function of the work, and solve it from the lower-order contributions in ϵ.The O(ϵ) contribution to the generating function reproduces two known facts: the work distribution is Gaussian, and the average work is given by the thermodynamic metric.When we take up to O(ϵ 2 ) contributions into account, the work distribution exhibits nonzero skewness, which means that the fluctuation-dissipation relation is violated with scaling 1/T 2 .Furthermore, from the analytic calculation with numerical supports, we conjecture that the nth cumulant of the work scales as 1/T n-1 for n ≥ 1.
We develop an information-geometric framework for analyzing quantum state-update processes generated by explicit collapse dynamics. Whereas a purely geometric description characterizes collapse as a finite displacement between an initial and a final statistical state, the present approach incorporates the dynamical law governing the intermediate evolution. A quantum state is represented by a density operator ρ(t) satisfying a specified dynamical equation, dρdt=C[ρ,t], or, more generally, by a unitary-plus-collapse evolution in which the collapse contribution is explicitly identified. The resulting trajectory is embedded in the statistical manifold of quantum states and analyzed using the quantum Fisher information metric. This allows one to define the instantaneous Fisher speed, the information-geometric length of the collapse trajectory, and an integrated geometric cost associated with the dynamical state change. The framework also permits comparison between the actual trajectory generated by a collapse model and the corresponding Fisher-geodesic trajectory connecting the same initial and final states. Relative entropy provides a complementary global measure of the distinguishability generated by the evolution, while the quantum Fisher metric characterizes its local statistical structure. The formalism is constructed so that different dynamical collapse proposals can be analyzed within a common geometric language without assuming that the geometric quantities themselves constitute a collapse mechanism: this is a diagnostic framework rather than a mechanism. In particular, once a specific collapse generator is supplied, the framework can determine how its parameters, localization properties, stochasticity, and time scale are reflected in the geometry of the associated state trajectory. The resulting formulation therefore provides a bridge between dynamical models of wave-function collapse and the information geometry of a quantum state space, while preserving the distinction between a physical collapse law and its geometric characterization.
We establish a direct connection between quantum thermodynamics and information geometry by introducing an ergotropic decomposition of the Wigner-Fisher information for Gaussian quantum states. We derive an analytical expression for the Wigner-Fisher information in terms of the phase-space covariance matrix and mean vector, and show that it naturally separates into passive and ergotropic contributions. The passive term is shown to be entirely determined by the Wigner entropy rate of the associated passive state. The ergotropic contribution, in turn, quantifies how displacement and squeezing resources modify the statistical velocity and length of the system trajectory in phase space. As an application, we analyze the recently proposed ergotropic Mpemba effect and demonstrate that it can be traced to the anomalous geometric evolution of the passive state associated with squeezed thermal states. Our results reveal how the extractable work stored in a quantum state constrains its information-geometric structure, establishing a framework that links ergotropy, entropy production rate, and statistical geometry in continuous-variable quantum systems.
In quantum metrology, precision is typically characterized by an ensemble-averaged quantity, the quantum Fisher information (QFI), which averages over the fluctuations of individual measurement records. Here we introduce the conditional quantum Fisher information (CQFI), a trajectory-level version of the QFI that generalizes the classical stochastic Fisher information to the quantum domain. Defined through the symmetric logarithmic derivative and conditioned on a measurement outcome, the CQFI is a random variable whose average recovers the QFI. Using it, we derive a trajectory-level quantum speed limit, illustrated by the quantum-jump unraveling of a driven thermal qubit. Moreover, the CQFI decomposes into incoherent (population) and coherent (basis-rotation) contributions, together with an interference cross-term. This cross-term vanishes on average but can take negative values along single trajectories, providing a local witness of destructive interference between classical and quantum information channels.
We develop an information-geometric framework for describing quantum state-update processes associated with measurement and statistical distinguishability. The approach is based on the quantum relative entropy and the quantum Fisher information metric, which together induce a natural Riemannian geometry on the manifold of quantum states. Using the second-order expansion of relative entropy, we show how the Fisher metric governs the local structure of distinguishability between nearby states and defines a corresponding thermodynamic length. This geometric structure provides an effective description of finite quantum state transitions in terms of fluctuation geometry and information-space distance. The formalism is applied to thermal two-level systems and harmonic oscillator states, illustrating how the Fisher metric encodes susceptibilities, fluctuations, and geometric transition costs. We also discuss the relation between thermodynamic length, dissipation bounds, and optimal paths in state space. Within this framework, wave function collapse is interpreted not as a microscopic dynamical mechanism, but as an effective state-update process that admits a geometric characterization in the manifold of density operators. The resulting perspective unifies concepts from quantum information theory, thermodynamics, and differential geometry within a common operational framework based on statistical distinguishability. Possible connections with quantum speed limits, entanglement geometry, and holographic relations between relative entropy and gravitational dynamics are briefly discussed.
The second law does more than set the direction of thermodynamic evolution: it endows nonequilibrium transformations with an underlying geometry. In this work, we provide a unified geometric description of entropy production in classical and quantum thermodynamics based on Wasserstein-2 structures arising from gradient flows of free energy. We review how relaxation to equilibrium, in overdamped diffusions, discrete detailed-balanced Markov chains, and dissipative Lindblad dynamics, can be formulated as a gradient flow on the space of states. The associated Wasserstein-2 distance bounds entropy production, yielding a finite-time refinement of the second law. We extend this framework beyond purely dissipative dynamics by introducing generalized Wasserstein-2 metrics that incorporate conservative (Hamiltonian) dynamics in both classical inertial systems and open quantum systems, yielding intrinsic distances that exactly characterize minimal entropy production under fixed dissipative mobilities. We establish equivalence bounds between purely dissipative and Hamiltonian-dissipative geometries, explicitly quantifying how inertial or coherent dynamics can reduce dissipation. Finally, when restricted to equilibrium distributions, we recover the thermodynamic length of linear response-including the quantum thermodynamic length-thereby linking optimal transport, thermodynamic length, and counterdiabatic protocols within a single geometric framework. All in all, our results extend the Riemannian program of thermodynamics further from equilibrium and provide a geometric foundation for optimal protocols beyond the overdamped setting.