Quantum processes as thermodynamic resources: the role of non-Markovianity

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zambon, Guilherme, Adesso, Gerardo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Zambon, Guilherme
Adesso, Gerardo
author_facet Zambon, Guilherme
Adesso, Gerardo
contents Quantum thermodynamics studies how quantum systems and operations may be exploited as sources of work to perform useful thermodynamic tasks. In real-world conditions, the evolution of open quantum systems typically displays memory effects, resulting in a non-Markovian dynamics. The associated information backflow has been observed to provide advantage in certain thermodynamic tasks. However, a general operational connection between non-Markovianity and thermodynamics in the quantum regime has remained elusive. Here, we analyze the role of non-Markovianity in the central task of extracting work via thermal operations from general multitime quantum processes, as described by process tensors. By defining a hierarchy of four classes of extraction protocols, expressed as quantum combs, we reveal three different physical mechanisms (work investment, multitime correlations, and system-environment correlations) through which non-Markovianity increases the work distillable from the process. The advantages arising from these mechanisms are linked precisely to a quantifier of the non-Markovianity of the process. These results show in very general terms how non-Markovianity of any given quantum process is a fundamental resource that unlocks an enhanced performance in thermodynamics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_05559
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantum processes as thermodynamic resources: the role of non-Markovianity
Zambon, Guilherme
Adesso, Gerardo
Quantum Physics
Quantum thermodynamics studies how quantum systems and operations may be exploited as sources of work to perform useful thermodynamic tasks. In real-world conditions, the evolution of open quantum systems typically displays memory effects, resulting in a non-Markovian dynamics. The associated information backflow has been observed to provide advantage in certain thermodynamic tasks. However, a general operational connection between non-Markovianity and thermodynamics in the quantum regime has remained elusive. Here, we analyze the role of non-Markovianity in the central task of extracting work via thermal operations from general multitime quantum processes, as described by process tensors. By defining a hierarchy of four classes of extraction protocols, expressed as quantum combs, we reveal three different physical mechanisms (work investment, multitime correlations, and system-environment correlations) through which non-Markovianity increases the work distillable from the process. The advantages arising from these mechanisms are linked precisely to a quantifier of the non-Markovianity of the process. These results show in very general terms how non-Markovianity of any given quantum process is a fundamental resource that unlocks an enhanced performance in thermodynamics.
title Quantum processes as thermodynamic resources: the role of non-Markovianity
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.05559