The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that temporal evolution of an isolated system occurs with non-diminishing entropy. In quantum realm, this holds for energy-isolated systems the evolution of which is described by the so-called unital quantum channel. The entropy of a system evolving in a non-unital quantum channel can, in principle, decrease. We formulate a general criterion of unitality for the evolution of a quantum system, enabling a simple and rigorous approach for finding and identifying the processes accompanied by decreasing entropy in energy-isolated systems. We discuss two examples illustrating our findings, the quantum Maxwell demon and heating-cooling process within a two-qubit system.
In apparent contradiction to the laws of thermodynamics, Maxwells demon is able to cyclically extract work from a system in contact with a thermal bath exploiting the information about its microstate. The resolution of this paradox required the insight that an intimate relationship exists between information and thermodynamics. Here, we realize a Maxwell demon experiment that tracks the state of each constituent both in the classical and quantum regimes. The demon is a microwave cavity that encodes quantum information about a superconducting qubit and converts information into work by powering up a propagating microwave pulse by stimulated emission. Thanks to the high level of control of superconducting circuits, we directly measure the extracted work and quantify the entropy remaining in the demons memory. This experiment provides an enlightening illustration of the interplay of thermodynamics with quantum information.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the entropy of a closed system is non-decreasing. Discussing the Second Law in the quantum world poses new challenges and provides new opportunities, involving fundamental quantum-information-theoretic questions and novel quantum-engineered devices. In quantum mechanics, systems with an evolution described by a so-called unital quantum channel evolve with a non-decreasing entropy. Here, we seek the opposite, a system described by a non-unital and, furthermore, energy-conserving channel that describes a system whose entropy decreases with time. We propose a setup involving a mesoscopic four-lead scatterer augmented by a micro-environment in the form of a spin that realizes this goal. Within this non-unital and energy-conserving quantum channel, the micro-environment acts with two non-commuting operations on the system in an autonomous way. We find, that the process corresponds to a partial exchange or swap between the system and environment quantum states, with the systems entropy decreasing if the environments state is more pure. This entropy-decreasing process is naturally expressed through the action of a quantum Maxwell demon and we propose a quantum-thermodynamic engine with four qubits that extracts work from a single heat reservoir when provided with a reservoir of pure qubits. The special feature of this engine, which derives from the energy-conservation in the non-unital quantum channel, is its separation into two cycles, a working cycle and an entropy cycle, allowing to run this engine with no local waste heat.
A quantum Maxwell demon is a device that can lower the entropy of a quantum system by providing it with purity. The functionality of such a quantum demon is rooted in a quantum mechanical SWAP operation exchanging mixed and pure states. We describe the setup and performance of a quantum Maxwell demon that purifies an energy-isolated system from a distance. Our cQED-based design involves two transmon qubits, where the mixed-state target qubit is purified by a pure-state demon qubit connected via an off-resonant transmission line; this configuration naturally generates an iSWAP gate. Although less powerful than a full SWAP gate, we show that assuming present-day performance characteristics of a cQED implementation, such an extended quantum Maxwell demon can purify the target qubit over macroscopic distances on the order of meters and tolerates elevated temperatures of the order of a few Kelvin in the transmission line.
The information of a quantum system acquired by a Maxwell demon can be used for either work extraction or entanglement preparation. We study these two tasks by using a thermal qubit, in which a demon obtains her information from measurements on the environment of the qubit. The allowed entanglement, between the qubit and an auxiliary system, is enhanced by the information. And, the increment is find to be equivalent to the extractable work. The Maxwell demon is called to be quantum by Beyer textit{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett 123, 250606 (2019) ] if there is quantum steering from the environment to the qubit. In this case, the postmeasured states of the qubit, after the measurements on its environment, cannot be simulated by an objective local statistical ensemble. We present a upper bound of extractable work, and equivalently of the allowed entanglement, for unsteerable demons, considering two measurements inducing two orthogonal changes of the Bloch vector of the qubit.