Quantum fluctuation theorems go Quantum Computers

Ken Funo, Masahito Ueda, Takahiro Sagawa

Peter Talkner A, Peter Hänggi A, Manuel Morillo

Erick Hinds Mingo, David Jennings

Matteo Lostaglio

We discuss the role of contextuality within quantum fluctuation theorems, in the light of a recent no-go result by Perarnau-Llobet et al. We show that any fluctuation theorem reproducing the two-point-measurement scheme for classical states either admits a notion of work quasiprobability or fails to describe protocols exhibiting contextuality. Conversely, we describe a protocol that smoothly interpolates between the two-point-measurement work distribution for projective measurements and Allahverdyan's work quasiprobability for weak measurements, and show that the negativity of the latter is a direct signature of contextuality.

Wojciech De Roeck

Quantum extensions of the Gallavotti–Cohen fluctuation theorem (FT) for the entropy production have been discussed by several authors. There is a practical gap between microscopic forms of FT and mesoscopic (i.e. not purely Hamiltonian) forms for open systems. In a microscopic setup, it is easy to state and to prove FT. In a mesoscopic setup, it is difficult to identify fluctuations of the entropy production. (This difficulty is absent in the classical case.) We discuss a particular mesoscopic model: a Lindblad master equation, in which we state FT and, more importantly, connect it rigorously with the underlying microscopic FT. We also remark that FT is satisfied by the Lesovik–Levitov formula for statistics of charge transport.

Martí Perarnau-Llobet