Beyond heat baths: Generalized resource theories for small-scale thermodynamics

Abstract

Thermodynamics has recently been extended to small scales with resource theories that model heat exchanges. Real physical systems exchange diverse quantities: heat, particles, angular momentum, etc. We generalize thermodynamic resource theories to exchanges of observables other than heat, to baths other than heat baths, and to free energies other than the Helmholtz free energy. These generalizations are illustrated with "grand-potential" theories that model movements of heat and particles. Free operations include unitaries that conserve energy and particle number. From this conservation law and from resource-theory principles, the grand-canonical form of the free states is derived. States are shown to form a quasiorder characterized by free operations, d-majorization, the hypothesis-testing entropy, and rescaled Lorenz curves. We calculate the work distillable from, and we bound the work cost of creating, a state. These work quantities can differ but converge to the grand potential in the thermodynamic limit. Extending thermodynamic resource theories beyond heat baths, we open diverse realistic systems to modeling with one-shot statistical mechanics. Prospective applications such as electrochemical batteries are hoped to bridge one-shot theory to experiments.

13 pages + appendices

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Cited by in corpus (63)

• Quantum Resource Theories
• Quantum majorization and a complete set of entropic conditions for quantum thermodynamics
• A derivation (and quantification) of the third law of thermodynamics
• An introductory review of the resource theory approach to thermodynamics
• Microcanonical and resource-theoretic derivations of the thermal state of a quantum system with noncommuting charges
• Thermodynamics of quantum systems with multiple conserved quantities
• Fully quantum fluctuation theorems
• One-Shot Operational Quantum Resource Theory
• No-Go Theorems for Quantum Resource Purification
• The second law of quantum thermodynamics as an equality
• A Resource Theory for Work and Heat
• Benchmarking one-shot distillation in general quantum resource theories
• Restrictions on realizable unitary operations imposed by symmetry and locality
• Thermodynamic work from operational principles
• Axiomatic relation between thermodynamic and information-theoretic entropies
• Thermally driven quantum refrigerator autonomously resets superconducting qubit
• Thermodynamics as a Consequence of Information Conservation
• Relative submajorization and its use in quantum resource theories
• Third Law of Thermodynamics as a Single Inequality
• Coherence distillation machines are impossible in quantum thermodynamics
• Fundamental work cost of quantum processes
• Hybrid Thermal Machines: Generalized Thermodynamic Resources for Multitasking
• Beyond heat baths II: Framework for generalized thermodynamic resource theories
• A sufficient set of experimentally implementable thermal operations
• Noncommuting conserved charges in quantum thermodynamics and beyond
• Holographic spacetime, black holes and quantum error correcting codes: A review
• What is the probability of a thermodynamical transition?
• Experimental observation of thermalization with noncommuting charges
• Non-Abelian Quantum Transport and Thermosqueezing Effects
• Role of Quantum Coherence in Thermodynamics
• The fourth law of thermodynamics: steepest entropy ascent
• Fundamental limitations on photoisomerization from thermodynamic resource theories
• The first law of general quantum resource theories
• One-shot entanglement distillation beyond local operations and classical communication
• Microcanonical thermodynamics in general physical theories
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• Resource theory of quantum uncomplexity
• Quantum Reference Frames and Their Applications to Thermodynamics
• Reference frames which separately store non-commuting conserved quantities
• Unification of the first law of quantum thermodynamics
• Toward physical realizations of thermodynamic resource theories
• Non-Abelian transport distinguishes three usually equivalent notions of entropy production
• Key Issues Review: Useful autonomous quantum machines
• Macroscopic Thermodynamic Reversibility in Quantum Many-Body Systems
• Quantum thermodynamics of holographic quenches and bounds on the growth of entanglement from the QNEC
• Erasure tolerant quantum memory and the quantum null energy condition in holographic systems
• Resource theory of quantum thermodynamics: Thermal operations and Second Laws
• Entropic equality for worst-case work at any protocol speed
• Covariant catalysis requires correlations and good quantum reference frames degrade little
• Theory of Quantum Circuits with Abelian Symmetries
• Resource theory of heat and work with non-commuting charges
• Complexity-constrained quantum thermodynamics
• Quantum thermodynamics with multiple conserved quantities
• Quantum Causal Structure and Quantum Thermodynamics
• A Compendious Review of Majorization-Based Resource Theories: Quantum Information and Quantum Thermodynamics
• Quantum refrigeration powered by noise in a superconducting circuit
• Information Erasure
• The second law and beyond in microscopic quantum setups
• Sufficiency of Rényi divergences
• Work, entropy production, and thermodynamics of information under protocol constraints
• Memory erasure with finite-sized spin reservoir
• Effects of correlated hopping on thermoelectric response of a quantum dot strongly coupled to ferromagnetic leads
• Informational work storage in quantum thermodynamics