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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Observing quantum work by Margenau-Hill quasiprobability

Juyeon Yi, Yong Woon Kim

Published Apr 14, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We consider Margenau-Hill quasiprobability that measures a statistical weight assigned to an observation of an energy eigenvalue pair and its utilization in assessing work done by isolated quantum ensembles that generally contain coherence. We point out some physically reasonable and intuitive features of the statistical properties of work determined by Margenau-Hill quasiprobability. To be specific, we show that in sharp contrast to other proposals, the moment-generating function given by Margenau-Hill quasiprobability fulfills the composition and shift properties, and thus guarantees the additivity of works performed by joined work protocols. Work fluctuations accessed by Margenau-Hill distribution also give expected values for initially pure energy ensembles, providing a rationale as to why it serves as a unique measure in characterizing quantum work and its fluctuations.

DOI
10.1209/0295-5075/adcc4c

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Abstract We consider Margenau-Hill quasiprobability that measures a statistical weight assigned to an observation of an energy eigenvalue pair and its utilization in assessing work done by isolated quantum ensembles that generally contain coherence. We point out some physically reasonable and intuitive features of the statistical properties of work determined by Margenau-Hill quasiprobability. To be specific, we show that in sharp contrast to other proposals, the moment-generating function given by Margenau-Hill quasiprobability fulfills the composition and shift properties, and thus guarantees the additivity of works performed by joined work protocols. Work fluctuations accessed by Margenau-Hill distribution also give expected values for initially pure energy ensembles, providing a rationale as to why it serves as a unique measure in characterizing quantum work and its fluctuations.
In quantum thermodynamics, the two-projective-measurement (TPM) scheme provides a successful description of stochastic work only in the absence of initial quantum coherence. Extending the quantum work distribution to quasiprobability is a general way to characterize work fluctuation in the presence of initial coherence. However, among a large number of different definitions, there is no consensus on the most appropriate work quasiprobability. In this article, we list several physically reasonable requirements including the first law of thermodynamics, time-reversal symmetry, positivity of second-order moment, and a support condition for the work distribution. We prove that the only definition that satisfies all these requirements is the Margenau-Hill (MH) quasiprobability of work. In this sense, the MH quasiprobability of work shows its advantages over other definitions. As an illustration, we calculate the MH work distribution of a breathing harmonic oscillator with initial squeezed states and show the convergence to classical work distribution in the classical limit.
The two-point measurement scheme for computing the thermodynamic work performed on a system requires it to be initially in equilibrium. The Margenau-Hill scheme, among others, extends the previous approach to allow for a non-equilibrium initial state. We establish a quantitative comparison between both schemes in terms of the amount of coherence present in the initial state of the system, as quantified by the l1-coherence measure. We show that the difference between the two first moments of work, the variances of work, and the average entropy production obtained in both schemes can be cast in terms of such initial coherence. Moreover, we prove that the average entropy production can take negative values in the Margenau-Hill framework.
Quasiprobability distributions offer a useful way of describing nonclassical features of quantum systems through their departure from classical probability theory. In this work, we investigate the quantification of nonclassicality associated with the Margenau--Hill quasiprobability (MHQ) distribution using its moments, without requiring reconstruction of the full distribution. First we introduce the logarithmic MHQ negativity as a quantifier of nonclassicality, and then derive a hierarchy of rigorous lower bounds in terms of low-order moments. Within the resulting hierarchy, the fourth-moment bound is the strongest among the bounds based on even moments. For qubits, we further derive a tight upper bound on the exact MHQ negativity and identify the corresponding extremal state. We also obtain an optimal positivity threshold based on the fourth moment for arbitrary pairs of qubit observables. Finally, we show that the relevant moments admit exact multicopy representations, providing a route to their estimation using interferometry or classical shadow techniques. Our results establish a moment-based framework for extracting quantitative information about MHQ negativity from a finite set of low-order observables.
The two-point measurement scheme for computing the thermodynamic work performed on a system requires it to be initially in equilibrium. The Margenau-Hill scheme, among others, extends the previous approach to allow for a non-equilibrium initial state. We establish a quantitative comparison between both schemes in terms of the amount of coherence present in the initial state of the system, as quantified by the l1-coherence measure. We show that the difference between the two first moments of work, the variances of work, and the average entropy production obtained in both schemes can be cast in terms of such initial coherence. Moreover, we prove that the average entropy production can take negative values in the Margenau-Hill framework.
In this article, we introduce a quasiprobability distribution of work that is based on the Wigner function. This proposal rests on the idea that the work conducted on an isolated system can be coherently measured by coupling the system to a quantum measurement apparatus. In this way, a quasiprobability distribution of work can be defined in terms of the Wigner function of the apparatus. This quasidistribution contains the information of the work statistics and also holds a clear operational definition that can be directly measured in a real experiment. Moreover, it is shown that the presence of quantum coherence in the energy eigenbasis is related with the appearance of features related to non-classicality in the Wigner function such as negativity and interference fringes. On the other hand, from this quasiprobability distribution, it is straightforward to obtain the standard two-point measurement probability distribution of work and also the difference in average energy for initial states with coherences.
The covariant formulation of stochastic thermodynamics requires treating the stochastic work as a 4-vector, posing significant challenges for quantum systems due to the non-commutativity. We introduce a new quasiprobability distribution for the work 4-vector, which combines the Wigner and Margenau-Hill quasiprobabilities. This extends the covariant fluctuation theorems from classical to quantum regime. We illustrate our findings with a scalar field driven by classical particles with a generalized version of trace formula. Our work establishes a quasiprobability approach to studying relativistic quantum thermodynamics in a covariant way.