Chapter 17 delves into quantum thermodynamics, building on the concepts introduced in the resource theory of nonuniformity. This chapter focuses on thermal states and athermality as resources within the quantum domain, emphasizing the significance of Gibbs states and their role in quantum statistical mechanics. It outlines the operational framework for thermal operations, setting the stage for discussions on energy conservation and the second law of thermodynamics in quantum systems. A key aspect of the chapter is the exploration of quasi-classical athermality, illustrating how quantum states deviate from thermal equilibrium when the state of the system commutes with its Hamiltonian. In the fully quantum domain, the chapter introduces closed formulas for quantifying athermality, such as the athermality cost and distillable athermality, both in the single-shot and the asymptotic domains. These measures provide a quantitative understanding of the efficiency of thermal operations and the potential for work extraction or consumption.
Chapter 17 delves into quantum thermodynamics, building on the concepts introduced in the resource theory of nonuniformity. This chapter focuses on thermal states and athermality as resources within the quantum domain, emphasizing the significance of Gibbs states and their role in quantum statistical mechanics. It outlines the operational framework for thermal operations, setting the stage for discussions on energy conservation and the second law of thermodynamics in quantum systems. A key aspect of the chapter is the exploration of quasi-classical athermality, illustrating how quantum states deviate from thermal equilibrium when the state of the system commutes with its Hamiltonian. In the fully quantum domain, the chapter introduces closed formulas for quantifying athermality, such as the athermality cost and distillable athermality, both in the single-shot and the asymptotic domains. These measures provide a quantitative understanding of the efficiency of thermal operations and the potential for work extraction or consumption.
Abstract Thermodynamics plays an important role both in the foundations of physics and in technological applications. An operational perspective adopted in recent years is to formulate it as a quantum resource theory. At the core of this theory is the interconversion between athermality states, i.e. states out of thermal equilibrium. Here, we solve the question of how athermality can be used to heat and cool other quantum systems that are initially at thermal equilibrium. We then show that the convertibility between quasi-classical resources (resources that do not exhibit coherence between different energy eigenstates) is fully characterized by their ability to cool and heat qubits, i.e. by two of the most fundamental thermodynamical tasks on the simplest quantum systems.
We introduce the resource-theoretic free energy of a quantum channel as the maximal work extractable from the channel as its output equilibrates to a thermal state and its reference system remains locally intact. It is proportional to the relative entropy between the given channel and the absolutely thermal channel. It attains a clear operational meaning as twice the asymptotic rates of athermality distillation and formation under Gibbs-preserving superchannels, which map one absolutely thermal channel to another for a given bath, thereby revealing the asymptotic reversibility of the resource theory of athermality for quantum channels. Consequently, we establish that the optimal extractable work in converting one channel to another through the asymptotic athermality distillation and formation tasks equals the difference in their free energies. We call this optimal work the thermodynamic work capacity of channel conversion. Quantum information processing and computing fundamentally concern the manipulation and transformation of quantum channels, which encompass quantum states, their transformations, and measurements. A quantitative characterization of the optimal thermodynamic work gain or expenditure in quantum information processing constitutes a key step toward formulating thermodynamics of quantum processes.
The second law of thermodynamics for adiabatic operations -- constraints on state transitions in closed systems under external control -- is one of the fundamental principles of thermodynamics. On the other hand, it is recently established that even pure quantum states can represent thermal equilibrium. However, pure quantum states do not satisfy the second law in that they are not passive, i.e., work can be extracted from them if arbitrary unitary operations are allowed. It therefore remains unresolved how quantum mechanics can be reconciled with thermodynamics. Here, based on our key quantum-mechanical notions of thermal equilibrium and adiabatic operations, we address the emergence of the second law for adiabatic operations in the thermodynamics limit. We first introduce infinite-observable macroscopic thermal equilibrium (iMATE); a quantum state, including pure states, is in iMATE if the expectation values of all additive observables agree with their equilibrium values. We also introduce a macroscopic operation as unitary evolution generated by a time-dependent additive Hamiltonian, which is regarded as corresponding to adiabatic operations. Employing these concepts, we show that no extensive work can be extracted from any quantum state in iMATE through any macroscopic operations. Furthermore, we introduce a quantum-mechanical form of entropy density such that it agrees with thermodynamic entropy density for any quantum state in iMATE. We then prove that for any initial state in iMATE, this entropy density cannot be decreased by any macroscopic operations, followed by a time-independent relaxation process. Our theory thus proves two different forms of the second law, by adopting macroscopically reasonable classes of observables, equilibrium states, and operations. We also discuss the time scales of macroscopic operations in these results.
Integrable quantum systems evolving from non-equilibrium initial states do not thermalize to conventional Gibbs ensembles (GE). Instead, at long times they relax to generalized Gibbs ensembles (GGEs), which incorporate the full set of local and quasi-local conserved quantities. While GGEs have been extensively studied in the literature, a quantitative analytic characterization of how different they are from ordinary GEs is still lacking. In this work, we address this question by employing the concept of athermality, which we define within quantum resource theory as the relative entropy between a given state and the closest thermal state. By means of integrability techniques we compute the athermality for several quantum quenches in paradigmatic integrable models, including the free XY spin chain, the interacting Lieb-Liniger model, the XXZ spin chain, and the harmonic chain. We find that often the athermality becomes anomalously small when the post-quench Hamiltonian is critical in its ground state, despite probing physics at a finite energy density. We also prove that it systematically develops a singularity at criticality, which is inherited from the entropy of the GGE.
This paper presents a comprehensive exposition of quantum thermodynamics, aiming to bridge the foundational concepts of classical thermodynamics and quantum mechanics.Beginning with a rigorous overview of classical thermodynamic laws and statistical ensembles, the work transitions into the quantum domain by introducing quantum states, density operators, and von Neumann entropy.Core thermodynamic quantities such as work, heat, energy, and entropy are redefined in the quantum regime, with emphasis on operational frameworks like the twopoint measurement scheme.The study explores the role of quantum resource theories in formulating generalizations of the second law and delves into the intricacies of nonequilibrium thermodynamics through fluctuation theorems, such as the Jarzynski equality and Crooks theorem.Special attention is given to the influence of coherence, entanglement, and measurement backaction, which contribute uniquely to quantum thermodynamic behavior.The treatise concludes with a discussion on quantum heat engines, thermodynamic consistency of quantum master equations, and information-theoretic approaches, establishing quantum thermodynamics as a vital framework for understanding energy and information flow at the quantum scale.
A central open question in quantum thermodynamics is the identification of thermodynamic entropy away from equilibrium. Although thermodynamic entropy coincides with the von Neumann entropy for a Gibbs state at equilibrium, the thermodynamic role of quantum coherence generated during nonequilibrium evolution remains unclear. Here, we show that von Neumann entropy does not, in general, represent the thermodynamic entropy governing heat exchange in coherent nonequilibrium quantum systems. By integrating the resource theory of quantum coherence with thermodynamic principles, we develop a general framework for nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics. We identify thermodynamic entropy with the energy entropy derived from energy-measurement statistics and introduce a dynamical temperature extending the equilibrium concept to nonequilibrium states. Consequently, we obtain an exact entropy-balance relation separating the entropy flux associated with heat exchange from the coherence-loss contribution to entropy production, establishing an operational connection between quantum coherence, heat flow, and total entropy change. Unlike approaches relying on equilibrium reference states or stationary Gibbs ensembles, our framework uses instantaneous dynamical quantities and remains valid throughout transient nonequilibrium evolution. It provides consistent dynamical definitions of temperature, work, heat, and free energy. Applying the formalism to an exactly solvable open quantum system, we show that the first and second laws hold throughout transient evolution and that equilibrium thermodynamics emerges dynamically in the weak-coupling long-time limit. Our results establish a unified framework for coherent nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics and suggest opportunities for controlling heat dissipation through coherence engineering in quantum thermal technologies.