In this paper, we have studied the Shannon "entropic" nonequilibrium temperature (NET) of quantum Brownian systems. The Brownian particle is attached to either a bosonic or fermionic bath. Based on the Fokker-Planck description of the c-number quantum Langevin equation, we have calculated entropy production, NET, and their bounds. Entropy production (EP), the upper bound of entropy production (UBEP), and the deviation of the UBEP from EP monotonically decrease as functions of time to equilibrium value for both of the thermal baths. The deviation decreases with increase of temperature of the bosonic thermal bath, but it becomes larger as the temperature of the fermionic bath grows. We also observe that nonequilibrium temperature and its lower bound monotonically increase to equilibrium value with the progression of time. But their difference as a function of time shows an optimum behavior in most cases. Finally, we have observed that at long time, the entropic temperature (for a bosonic thermal bath) first increases nonlinearly as a function of thermodynamic temperature (TT) and, if the TT is appreciably large, then it grows linearly. But for the fermionic thermal bath, the entropic temperature decreases monotonically as a nonlinear function of thermodynamic temperature to zero value.
In this paper, we have studied the Shannon "entropic" nonequilibrium temperature (NET) of quantum Brownian systems. The Brownian particle is attached to either a bosonic or fermionic bath. Based on the Fokker-Planck description of the c-number quantum Langevin equation, we have calculated entropy production, NET, and their bounds. Entropy production (EP), the upper bound of entropy production (UBEP), and the deviation of the UBEP from EP monotonically decrease as functions of time to equilibrium value for both of the thermal baths. The deviation decreases with increase of temperature of the bosonic thermal bath, but it becomes larger as the temperature of the fermionic bath grows. We also observe that nonequilibrium temperature and its lower bound monotonically increase to equilibrium value with the progression of time. But their difference as a function of time shows an optimum behavior in most cases. Finally, we have observed that at long time, the entropic temperature (for a bosonic thermal bath) first increases nonlinearly as a function of thermodynamic temperature (TT) and, if the TT is appreciably large, then it grows linearly. But for the fermionic thermal bath, the entropic temperature decreases monotonically as a nonlinear function of thermodynamic temperature to zero value.
We use a canonical quantization procedure to set up a quantum Fokker-Planck-Kramers equation that accounts for quantum dissipation in a thermal environment. The dissipation term is chosen to ensure that the thermodynamic equilibrium is described by the Gibbs state. An expression for the quantum entropy production that properly describes quantum systems in a nonequilibrium stationary state is also provided. The time-dependent solution is given for a quantum harmonic oscillator in contact with a heat bath. We also obtain the stationary solution for a system of two coupled harmonic oscillators in contact with reservoirs at distinct temperatures, from which we obtain the entropy production and the quantum thermal conductance.
Abstract Based on exact integration of the Schrödinger equation, we numerically study microscopic contributions to the entropy production for the single electron transistor, a paradigmatic model describing a single Fermi level tunnel coupled to two baths of free fermions. To this end, we decompose the entropy production into a sum of information theoretic terms and study them across all relevant time scales, including the nonequilibrium steady state regime and the final stage of global thermalization. We find that the entropy production is dominated for most times by microscopic deviations from thermality in the baths and the correlation between (but not inside) the baths. Despite these microscopic deviations from thermality, the temperatures and chemical potentials of the baths thermalize as expected, even though our model is integrable. Importantly, this observation is confirmed for both initially mixed and pure states. We further observe that the bath-bath correlations are quite insensitive to the system-bath coupling strength contrary to intuition. Finally, the system-bath correlation, small in an absolute sense, dominates in a relative sense and displays pure quantum correlations for all studied parameter regimes.
A definition of nonequilibrium free energy Fs is proposed for dynamical Gaussian quantum open systems strongly coupled to a heat bath and the formal relation with the generating functional, the coarse-grained effective action and the influence action is indicated. For Gaussian open quantum systems exemplified by the quantum Brownian motion model studied here, a time-varying effective temperature can be introduced in a natural way, and, with it, the nonequilibrium free energy Fs, von Neumann entropy SvN and internal energy Us of the reduced system (S) can be defined accordingly. In contrast to the nonequilibrium free energy found in the literature which references the bath temperature, the nonequilibrium thermodynamic functions we find here obey the familiar relation ${\mathcal{F}}_{\mathrm{s}}(t)={\mathcal{U}}_{\mathrm{s}}(t)\ensuremath{-}{T}_{\mathrm{EFF}}(t){\mathcal{S}}_{vN}(t)$ at any and all moments of time in the system's fully nonequilibrium evolution history. After the system equilibrates they coincide, in the weak coupling limit, with their counterparts in conventional equilibrium thermodynamics. Since the effective temperature captures both the state of the system and its interaction with the bath, upon the system's equilibration, it approaches a value slightly higher than the initial bath temperature. Notably, it remains nonzero for a zero-temperature bath, signaling the existence of system-bath entanglement. Reasonably, at high bath temperatures and under ultraweak couplings, it becomes indistinguishable from the bath temperature. The nonequilibrium thermodynamic functions and relations discovered here for dynamical Gaussian quantum systems should open up useful pathways toward establishing meaningful theories of nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics.
Abstract The quantum Brownian motion model is a typical model in the study of nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics. Entropy is one of the most fundamental physical concepts in thermodynamics. In this work, by solving the quantum Langevin equation, we study the von Neumann entropy of a particle undergoing quantum Brownian motion. We obtain the analytical expression of the time evolution of the Wigner function in terms of the initial Wigner function. The result is applied to the thermodynamic equilibrium initial state, which reproduces its classical counterpart in the high temperature limit. Based on these results, for those initial states having well-defined classical counterparts, we obtain the explicit expression of the quantum corrections to the entropy in the weak coupling limit. Moreover, we find that for the thermodynamic equilibrium initial state, all terms odd in ℏ are exactly zero. Our results bring important insights to the understanding of entropy in open quantum systems.
As stated by the second law of thermodynamics, the irreversible entropy of a system keeps being produced until it reaches the equilibrium, and the entropy production rate is always non-negative. But when some exotic quantum properties, e.g., quantum coherence or squeezing, exist in the bath, it has been reported that the 2nd law does not apply. Correspondingly, the previous description of the entropy production rate does not apply either, and it is not always non-negative in these cases. We notice that the entropy production rate can be generalized to be the increasing rate of the mutual information between the open system and its environment. For thermal baths, this mutual information production rate equals to the previous entropy production rate. For non-thermal baths, in an example of a single boson mode interacting with multiple squeezed thermal baths, we proved that the mutual information production rate is always non-negative. The monotonic increasing mutual information means the system and its environment are becoming more and more correlated during the evolution.
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.