Physical Review E

Quantum heat-fluctuation theorem of a reduced system: An exactly solvable case

Zhan-Wu Bai

Published Feb 2, 2011• 0 citations

Abstract

For a system in which free quantum Brownian particles interact with a non-Markovian heat bath with product initial states, the quantum heat-fluctuation theorems and the Jarzynski relation of the reduced system are derived using the path integral technique. They are not a direct generalization of the classical case. The validity of the second law of quantum thermodynamics is shown. The forms of these theorems and relations have to do with the specified nonequilibrium initial states, and are dependent on the structure of the bath (ergodic or nonergodic) in the quantum case as well as the classical case under some initial states.

DOI: 10.1103/physreve.83.021101

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