No Arabic abstract
We extend on ideas from standard thermodynamics to show that temperature can be assigned to a general nonequilibrium quantum system. By choosing a physically motivated complete set of observables and expanding the system state thereupon, one can read a set of relevant, independent thermodynamic variables which include internal energy. This expansion allows us to read a nonequilibrium temperature as the partial derivative of the von Neumann entropy with respect to internal energy. We show that this definition of temperature is one of a set of thermodynamics parameters unambiguously describing the system state. It has appealing features such as positivity for passive states and consistency with the standard temperature for thermal states. By attributing temperature to correlations in a bipartite system, we obtain a universal relation which connects the temperatures of subsystems, total system as a whole, and correlation. All these temperatures can be different even when the composite system is in a well-defined Gibbsian thermal state.
We formulate exact generalized nonequilibrium fluctuation relations for the quantum mechanical harmonic oscillator coupled to multiple harmonic baths. Each of the different baths is prepared in its own individual (in general nonthermal) state. Starting from the exact solution for the oscillator dynamics we study fluctuations of the oscillator position as well as of the energy current through the oscillator under general nonequilibrium conditions. In particular, we formulate a fluctuation-dissipation relation for the oscillator position autocorrelation function that generalizes the standard result for the case of a single bath at thermal equilibrium. Moreover, we show that the generating function for the position operator fullfills a generalized Gallavotti-Cohen-like relation. For the energy transfer through the oscillator, we determine the average energy current together with the current fluctuations. Finally, we discuss the generalization of the cumulant generating function for the energy transfer to nonthermal bath preparations.
Continuing our work on the nature and existence of fluctuation-dissipation relations (FDR) in linear and nonlinear open quantum systems [1-3], here we consider such relations when a linear system is in a nonequilibrium steady state (NESS). With the model of two-oscillators (considered as a short harmonic chain with the two ends) each connected to a thermal bath of different temperatures we find that when the chain is fully relaxed due to interaction with the baths, the relation that connects the noise kernel and the imaginary part of the dissipation kernel of the chain in one bath does not assume the conventional form for the FDR in equilibrium cases. There exists an additional term we call the `bias current that depends on the difference of the baths initial temperatures and the inter-oscillator coupling strength. We further show that this term is related to the steady heat flow between the two baths when the system is in NESS. The ability to know the real-time development of the inter-heat exchange (between the baths and the end-oscillators) and the intra-heat transfer (within the chain) and their dependence on the parameters in the system offers possibilities for quantifiable control and in the design of quantum heat engines or thermal devices.
Measuring local temperatures of open systems out of equilibrium is emerging as a novel approach to study the local thermodynamic properties of nanosystems. An operational protocol has been proposed to determine the local temperature by coupling a probe to the system and then minimizing the perturbation to a certain local observable of the probed system. In this paper, we first show that such a local temperature is unique for a single quantum impurity and the given local observable. We then extend this protocol to open systems consisting of multiple quantum impurities by proposing a local minimal perturbation condition (LMPC). The influence of quantum resonances on the local temperature is elucidated by both analytic and numerical results. In particular, we demonstrate that quantum resonances may give rise to strong oscillations of the local temperature along a multiimpurity chain under a thermal bias.
We investigate the quantum thermal transistor effect in nonequilibrium three-level systems by applying the polaron transformed Redfield equation combined with full counting statistics. The steady state heat currents are obtained via this unified approach over a wide region of system-bath coupling, and can be analytically reduced to the Redfield and nonequilibrium noninteracting blip approximation results in the weak and strong coupling limits, respectively. A giant heat amplification phenomenon emerges in the strong system-bath coupling limit, where transitions mediated by the middle thermal bath is found to be crucial to unravel the underlying mechanism. Moreover, the heat amplification is also exhibited with moderate coupling strength, which can be properly explained within the polaron framework.
Describing open quantum systems far from equilibrium is challenging, in particular when the environment is mesoscopic, when it develops nonequilibrium features during the evolution, or when the memory effects cannot be disregarded. Here, we derive a master equation that explicitly accounts for system-bath correlations and includes, at a coarse-grained level, a dynamically evolving bath. Such a master equation applies to a wide variety of physical systems including those described by Random Matrix Theory or the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis. We obtain a local detailed balance condition which, interestingly, does not forbid the emergence of stable negative temperature states in unison with the definition of temperature through the Boltzmann entropy. We benchmark the master equation against the exact evolution and observe a very good agreement in a situation where the conventional Born-Markov-secular master equation breaks down. Interestingly, the present description of the dynamics is robust and it remains accurate even if some of the assumptions are relaxed. Even though our master equation describes a dynamically evolving bath not described by a Gibbs state, we provide a consistent nonequilibrium thermodynamic framework and derive the first and second law as well as the Clausius inequality. Our work paves the way for studying a variety of nanoscale quantum technologies including engines, refrigerators, or heat pumps beyond the conventionally employed assumption of a static thermal bath.