Limits to catalysis in quantum thermodynamics

Abstract

Quantum thermodynamics is a research field that aims at fleshing out the ultimate limits of thermodynamic processes in the deep quantum regime. A complete picture of quantum thermodynamics allows for catalysts, i.e., systems facilitating state transformations while remaining essentially intact in their state, very much reminding of catalysts in chemical reactions. In this work, we present a comprehensive analysis of the power and limitation of such thermal catalysis. Specifically, we provide a family of optimal catalysts that can be returned with minimal trace distance error after facilitating a state transformation process. To incorporate the genuine physical role of a catalyst, we identify very significant restrictions on arbitrary state transformations under dimension or mean energy bounds, using methods of convex relaxations. We discuss the implication of these findings on possible thermodynamic state transformations in the quantum regime.

6+12 pages revtex, 3 figures

References in corpus (3)

• The thermodynamic meaning of negative entropy
• Gibbs-Preserving Maps outperform Thermal Operations in the quantum regime
• Reexamination of Pure Qubit Work Extraction

Cited by in corpus (58)

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• The role of coherence in the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of quantum systems
• Fully quantum fluctuation theorems
• The second law of quantum thermodynamics as an equality
• Correlating thermal machines and the second law at the nanoscale
• Stochastic independence as a resource in small-scale thermodynamics
• Quantum thermodynamics of correlated-catalytic state conversion at small-scale
• Second laws under control restrictions
• Energetic instability of passive states in thermodynamics
• Third Law of Thermodynamics as a Single Inequality
• Catalysis of entanglement and other quantum resources
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• Fundamental work cost of quantum processes
• A sufficient set of experimentally implementable thermal operations
• Correlation in Catalysts Enables Arbitrary Manipulation of Quantum Coherence
• Entropy and reversible catalysis
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• Fundamental Limits on Correlated Catalytic State Transformations
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• Operational definition of the temperature of a quantum state
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• Catalytic quantum randomness
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• Quantum Thermodynamics for Driven Dissipative Bosonic Systems
• Optimizing thermalizations
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• Fundamental limits on anomalous energy flows in correlated quantum systems
• By-passing fluctuation theorems
• Catalytic leverage of correlations and mitigation of dissipation in Information erasure
• Autonomous Quantum Devices: When Are They Realizable without Additional Thermodynamic Costs?
• Catalytic Transformations in Coherence Theory
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• Catalysis in Action via Elementary Thermal Operations
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• Quantum catalysis in cavity quantum electrodynamics
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• Complete Characterization of Entanglement Embezzlement
• Asymptotic Reversibility of Thermal Operations for Interacting Quantum Spin Systems via Generalized Quantum Stein's Lemma
• Catalytic transformations for thermal operations
• Teleportation with Embezzling Catalysts
• Smooth entropy in axiomatic thermodynamics
• Revisiting Pure State Transformations with Zero Communication
• Communication with Quantum Catalysts
• The irreversibility cost of purifying Szilard's engine: Is it possible to perform erasure using the quantum homogenizer?
• Role of energy-invariant assistants in energy extraction from quantum batteries
• Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry
• Catalytic Activation of Bell Nonlocality
• Unlocking inaccessible performance of the quantum refrigerator with catalysts
• Finite-size catalysis in quantum resource theories
• Statistics of Entanglement Transformation with Hierarchies among Catalysts
• Thermal operations from informational equilibrium
• Advantage of flexible catalysis for entanglement and quantum thermodynamics