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arXiv:2506.12603

Inequality for von Neumann entropy change under measurement and dissipation

Kohei Kobayashi

Published Jun 14, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

We derive a universal inequality that provides a lower bound on the ensemble-averaged von Neumann entropy change in a quantum system subject to continuous measurement and dissipation. Our result clarifies how entropy production is fundamentally constrained by three distinct contributions: (i) the non-Hermitian structure of the dissipation operator, (ii) the standard variance associated with measurement-induced fluctuations, and (iii) a generalized quantum variance reflecting the noncommutativity between the measurement observable and the quantum state. This third term vanishes when the state and observable commute, and thus represents a purely quantum contribution arising from coherence disturbance and measurement backaction. The derived inequality generalizes classical information-thermodynamic relations, such as the Sagawa--Ueda inequality, to the quantum regime, providing a new perspective on the trade-offs between information acquisition, control, and entropy production in continuously monitored open quantum systems.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2506.12603

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We derive a universal inequality that provides a lower bound on the ensemble-averaged von Neumann entropy change in a quantum system subject to continuous measurement and dissipation. Our result clarifies how entropy production is fundamentally constrained by three distinct contributions: (i) the non-Hermitian structure of the dissipation operator, (ii) the standard variance associated with measurement-induced fluctuations, and (iii) a generalized quantum variance reflecting the noncommutativity between the measurement observable and the quantum state. This third term vanishes when the state and observable commute, and thus represents a purely quantum contribution arising from coherence disturbance and measurement backaction. The derived inequality generalizes classical information-thermodynamic relations, such as the Sagawa--Ueda inequality, to the quantum regime, providing a new perspective on the trade-offs between information acquisition, control, and entropy production in continuously monitored open quantum systems.
In quantum thermodynamics, entropy production is usually defined in terms of the quantum relative entropy between two states. We derive a lower bound for the quantum entropy production in terms of the mean and variance of quantum observables, which we refer to as a thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) for the entropy production. In the absence of coherence between the states, our result reproduces classic TURs in stochastic thermodynamics. For the derivation of the TUR, we introduce a lower bound for a quantum generalization of the χ^{2} divergence between two states and discuss its implications for stochastic and quantum thermodynamics, as well as the limiting case where it reproduces the quantum Cramér-Rao inequality.
We build a framework for the thermodynamics of macroscopic quantum systems. In contrast with approaches requiring access to the full density matrix, our framework relies on a coarse-grained description, based on measurement statistics of a few observables. When these observables commute, the outcomes define classical macrostates whose entropy is quantified by observational entropy, accounting for uncertainty about both the macrostate and the microstate within it. We extend this notion to non-commuting observables forming a subalgebra of the operator space, and use Jaynes' principle to define an algebra-dependent entropy interpolating between von Neumann and observational entropies. Given initial and final measurement sets, connected by internal and/or environment-induced dynamics, we derive a second law for the coarse-grained dynamics. Unlike formulations based on von Neumann entropy, our inequality captures irreversibility from both non-unitary environment-induced dynamics and internal equilibration. It takes the usual form of a positive entropy production when the system is initially at internal equilibrium, while correction terms capture nonequilibrium resources ignored by the coarse-graining. We also derive fluctuation theorems for coarse-grained thermodynamic quantities. Along a quasi-static path of measurement schemes, we identify quantum macroscopic notions of work and heat fulfilling the first and second laws, including an additional work contribution from manipulating the algebra to which the system is confined, through external constraints or quantum measurement backaction. Finally, we apply our framework to examples illustrating the impact of varying the coarse-graining scheme. Our approach unifies macroscopic and stochastic thermodynamics in a genuinely quantum framework, laying the basis for a versatile, experimentally friendly toolbox to analyze complex quantum dynamics.
The thermodynamic behavior of Markovian open quantum systems can be described at the level of fluctuations by using continuous monitoring approaches. However, practical applications require assessing imperfect detection schemes, where the definition of main thermodynamic quantities becomes subtle and universal fluctuation relations are unknown. Here, we fill this gap by deriving a universal fluctuation relation that links thermodynamic entropy production and information-theoretical irreversibility along single trajectories in inefficient monitoring setups. This relation provides as a corollary an irreversibility estimator of dissipation using imperfect detection records that lower bounds the underlying entropy production at the level of visible trajectories. We illustrate our findings with a driven-dissipative two-level system following quantum jump trajectories and discuss the experimental applicability of our results for thermodynamic inference.
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Quantum information-theoretic approach had been identified as a way to understand the foundations of quantum mechanics as early as 1950 due to Shannon. However, there hasn’t been enough advancement or rigorous development of the subject. In the following paper we try to find the relationship between a general quantum mechanical observable and von Neumann entropy. We find that the expectation values and the uncertainties of the observables have bounds which depend on the entropy. The results also show that von Neumann entropy is not just the uncertainty of the state but also encompasses the information about expectation values and uncertainties of any observable which depend on the observers choice for a particular measurement. Also a reverse uncertainty relation is derived for [Formula: see text] quantum mechanical observables.