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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Dissipation and entropy production in open quantum systems

Hiroki Majima, Akira Suzuki

Published Nov 1, 2010• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A microscopic description of an open system is generally expressed by the Hamiltonian of the form: H tot = H sys + H environ + H sys − environ . We developed a microscopic theory of entropy and derived a general formula, so-called "entropy-Hamiltonian relation" (EHR), that connects the entropy of the system to the interaction Hamiltonian represented by H sys - environ for a nonequilibrium open quantum system. To derive the EHR formula, we mapped the open quantum system to the representation space of the Liouville-space formulation or thermo field dynamics (TFD), and thus worked on the representation space := ⊗ , where denotes the ordinary Hilbert space while the tilde Hilbert space conjugates to . We show that the natural transformation (mapping) of nonequilibrium open quantum systems is accomplished within the theoretical structure of TFD. By using the obtained EHR formula, we also derived the equation of motion for the distribution function of the system. We demonstrated that by knowing the microscopic description of the interaction, namely, the specific form of H sys − environ on the representation space , the EHR formulas enable us to evaluate the entropy of the system and to gain some information about entropy for nonequilibrium open quantum systems.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/258/1/012015

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A microscopic description of an open system is generally expressed by the Hamiltonian of the form: H tot = H sys + H environ + H sys − environ . We developed a microscopic theory of entropy and derived a general formula, so-called "entropy-Hamiltonian relation" (EHR), that connects the entropy of the system to the interaction Hamiltonian represented by H sys - environ for a nonequilibrium open quantum system. To derive the EHR formula, we mapped the open quantum system to the representation space of the Liouville-space formulation or thermo field dynamics (TFD), and thus worked on the representation space := ⊗ , where denotes the ordinary Hilbert space while the tilde Hilbert space conjugates to . We show that the natural transformation (mapping) of nonequilibrium open quantum systems is accomplished within the theoretical structure of TFD. By using the obtained EHR formula, we also derived the equation of motion for the distribution function of the system. We demonstrated that by knowing the microscopic description of the interaction, namely, the specific form of H sys − environ on the representation space , the EHR formulas enable us to evaluate the entropy of the system and to gain some information about entropy for nonequilibrium open quantum systems.
The state of a system changes as a consequence of its internal dynamics and of the interaction with the environment that leads to a system‐environment correlation and cannot be represented in terms of unitary Hamiltonian dynamics of the system. In order to investigate the role of interaction between the system and its environment, we derive a general formula which relates the Hamiltonian of the system to entropy. This formula enables us to discriminate a type of interactions which causes the change in the state of the system in a spontaneous process. In other words, this formula enables us to know the type of interactions which would induce a new equilibrium state of the system in the process. It is found that the certain type of interactions does not affect the state (dynamics) of the system even if there are interactions between the system and its environment.
A quantum statistical expression for the entropy of a nonequilibrium system is defined so as to be consistent with Gibbs’ relation, and is shown to corresponds to dynamical variable by introducing analogous to the Heisenberg picture in quantum mechanics. The general relation between system-reservoir interactions and an entropy change operator in an open quantum system, relying just on the framework of statistical mechanics and the definition of von Neumann entropy. By using this formula, we can obtain the correct entropy production in the linear response framework. The present derivation of entropy production is directly based on the first principle of microscopic time-evolution, while the previous standard argument is due to the thermodynamic energy balance.
Given the evolution of an arbitrary open quantum system, we formulate a general and unambiguous method to separate the internal energy change of the system into an entropy-related contribution and a part causing no entropy change, identified as heat and work, respectively. We also demonstrate that heat and work admit geometric and dynamical descriptions by developing a universal dynamical equation for the given trajectory of the system. The dissipative and coherent parts of this equation contribute exclusively to heat and work, where the specific role of a work contribution from a counterdiabatic drive is underlined. Next we define an expression for the irreversible entropy production of the system which does not have explicit dependence on the properties of the ambient environment; rather, it depends on a set of the system's observables excluding its Hamiltonian and is independent of internal energy change. We illustrate our results with three examples.
Thermodynamics is a phenomenological theory describing the energy conversion of work and heat. At its origins thermodynamics was developed in order to understand and improve heat engines. In conventional thermodynamics, however, only such processes are completely describable which are slow enough to keep the system of interest in an equilibrium state with its thermal environment at all times. On the contrary, all real physical processes are accompanied by non-equilibrium phenomena. These are mathematically described with the help of the irreversible entropy production, i.e. the dissipated work divided by the temperature of the bath. The second law of thermodynamics merely states that the irreversible entropy production is on average always positive. The modern trend of miniaturization, however, leads to smaller and smaller devices. On short length scales thermal noise as well as quantum fluctuations become important. Thus, usual thermodynamic quantities as work and heat acquire stochastic nature. Moreover, in the quantum regime a completely new theory had to be invented, since classical notions of work and heat are no longer valid. The present dissertation contributes to this prevailing field by the derivation of analytical expressions for the entropy production in open and closed quantum system far from thermal equilibrium. The theoretical treatment is motivated by an experimental point of view. The obtained results were derived from the reduced dynamics of the quantum mechanical system, which may be coupled to a thermal bath. To this end, it was dealt with methods and approaches of statistical physics, conventional thermodynamics, quantum information theory and the theory of open quantum systems. In this dissertation the most important physical systems are treated. First, an isolated system is considered before later on a heat bath is included. The limit of weak as well as of strong coupling are analyzed in detail. For isolated systems it turns out that a geometric approach is able to capture the thermodynamic properties, completely. To this end, the irreversible entropy production is sharply estimated from below by the angle between the real non-equilibrium state and the corresponding equilibrium one. Further, it is shown that the Heisenberg uncertainty relation for energy and time can be formulated more precisely in terms of that angle. As experimental system cold ion traps are introduced, in which the theoretical predictions can be verified. For weakly coupled systems, then, the irreversible entropy production is identified and a fluctuation theorem is derived by merely thermodynamic arguments. As experimental system we, again, propose the cold ion traps, where the heat bath can be simulated with the help of LASER light. In the limit of strong coupling a semiclassical description of the reduced quantum system is discussed. Again, an analytically exact expression for the entropy production and the corresponding fluctuation theorem is derived. A physical system, in which strong coupling to the environment can be analyzed, is given by Josephson junctions. This dissertation discusses the entropy production for isolated, weakly coupled, and overdamped quantum systems. For these physical regimes analytical relation are derived and experimental systems proposed, with which the predictions can be verified.
We develop a general theory describing the thermodynamical behavior of open quantum systems coupled to thermal baths beyond perturbation theory. Our approach is based on the exact time-local quantum master equation for the reduced open-system states, and on a principle of minimal dissipation. This principle leads to a unique prescription for the decomposition of the master equation into a Hamiltonian part representing coherent time evolution and a dissipator part describing dissipation and decoherence. Employing this decomposition we demonstrate how to define work, heat, and entropy production, formulate the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and establish the connection between violations of the second law and quantum non-Markovianity.
Considering von Neumann expression for reduced density matrix as thermodynamic entropy of a system strongly coupled to baths, we use nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) techniques to derive bath and energy resolved expressions for entropy, entropy production, and information flows. The consideration is consistent with dynamic (quantum transport) description and expressions reduce to expected forms in limiting cases of weak coupling or steady state. Formulation of the flows in terms of only system degrees freedom is convenient for simulation of thermodynamic characteristics of open nonequilibrium quantum systems. We utilize standard NEGF for derivations in noninteracting systems, Hubbard NEGF is used for interacting systems. Theoretical derivations are illustrated with numerical simulations within generic junction models.