Correlating thermal machines and the second law at the nanoscale

Abstract

Thermodynamics at the nanoscale is known to differ significantly from its familiar macroscopic counterpart: the possibility of state transitions is not determined by free energy alone, but by an infinite family of free-energy-like quantities; strong fluctuations (possibly of quantum origin) allow to extract less work reliably than what is expected from computing the free energy difference. However, these known results rely crucially on the assumption that the thermal machine is not only exactly preserved in every cycle, but also kept uncorrelated from the quantum systems on which it acts. Here we lift this restriction: we allow the machine to become correlated with the microscopic systems on which it acts, while still exactly preserving its own state. Surprisingly, we show that this restores the second law in its original form: free energy alone determines the possible state transitions, and the corresponding amount of work can be invested or extracted from single systems exactly and without any fluctuations. At the same time, the work reservoir remains uncorrelated from all other systems and parts of the machine. Thus, microscopic machines can increase their efficiency via clever "correlation engineering" in a perfectly cyclic manner, which is achieved by a catalytic system that can sometimes be as small as a single qubit (though some setups require very large catalysts). Our results also solve some open mathematical problems on majorization which may lead to further applications in entanglement theory.

11+13 pages, 5 figures. Added some clarifications and corrections; results unchanged. Close to published version

References in corpus (10)

• Description of quantum coherence in thermodynamic processes requires constraints beyond free energy
• Quantum coherence, time-translation symmetry and thermodynamics
• Gibbs-Preserving Maps outperform Thermal Operations in the quantum regime
• Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for the Trumping Relation
• Catalytic Conversion Probabilities for Bipartite Pure States
• Energetic instability of passive states in thermodynamics
• Third Law of Thermodynamics as a Single Inequality
• Counterexamples to additivity of minimum output p-Renyi entropy for p close to 0
• Reexamination of Pure Qubit Work Extraction
• Smoothed generalized free energies for thermodynamics

Cited by in corpus (78)

• Entanglement, Coherence, and Extractable Work in Quantum Batteries
• Precision and Work Fluctuations in Gaussian Battery Charging
• Fluctuations in extractable work bound the charging power of quantum batteries
• Von Neumann entropy from unitarity
• Absence of magnetic thermal conductivity in the quantum spin liquid candidate EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2 -- revisited
• Unifying paradigms of quantum refrigeration: A universal and attainable bound on cooling
• Quantum thermodynamics of correlated-catalytic state conversion at small-scale
• Coherence and asymmetry cannot be broadcast
• Thermodynamics as a Consequence of Information Conservation
• Energy storage and coherence in closed and open quantum batteries
• Catalysis of entanglement and other quantum resources
• Stroboscopic two-stroke quantum heat engines
• Correlation in Catalysts Enables Arbitrary Manipulation of Quantum Coherence
• Entropy and reversible catalysis
• Fundamental Limits on Correlated Catalytic State Transformations
• Gaussian Thermal Operations and the Limits of Algorithmic Cooling
• Operational definition of the temperature of a quantum state
• Non-Markovian effect on quantum Otto engine: -Role of system--reservoir interaction-
• Unifying paradigms of quantum refrigeration: fundamental limits of cooling and associated work costs
• Enhanced steady-state coherence via repeated system-bath interactions
• All states are universal catalysts in quantum thermodynamics
• Extending the laws of thermodynamics for arbitrary autonomous quantum systems
• Negative contributions to entropy production induced by quantum coherences
• Quantum Heat Engines with Carnot Efficiency at Maximum Power
• Thermodynamics from indistinguishability: mitigating and amplifying the effects of the bath
• Continuous thermomajorization and a complete set of laws for Markovian thermal processes
• Optimal Extensions of Resource Measures and their Applications
• Relative Entropy and Catalytic Relative Majorization
• Imperfect Thermalizations Allow for Optimal Thermodynamic Processes
• By-passing fluctuation theorems
• Fundamental limits on anomalous energy flows in correlated quantum systems
• Amplifying asymmetry with correlated catalysts
• Correlations in typicality and an affirmative solution to the exact catalytic entropy conjecture
• Trade-off Between Work and Correlations in Quantum Thermodynamics
• The variance of relative surprisal as single-shot quantifier
• Dependence of integrated, instantaneous, and fluctuating entropy production on the initial state in quantum and classical processes
• Arbitrary Amplification of Quantum Coherence in Asymptotic and Catalytic Transformation
• Autonomous Quantum Devices: When Are They Realizable without Additional Thermodynamic Costs?
• Catalytic leverage of correlations and mitigation of dissipation in Information erasure
• Two constructive proofs on d-majorization and thermo-majorization
• The Min-entropy as a Resource for One-Shot Private State Transfer, Quantum Masking and State Transition
• Thermodynamically optimal creation of correlations
• Resource theory of quantum thermodynamics: Thermal operations and Second Laws
• Second law of thermodynamics for batteries with vacuum state
• Exploring the gap between thermal operations and enhanced thermal operations
• Catalysis in Action via Elementary Thermal Operations
• Coherence manipulation in asymmetry and thermodynamics
• Catalytic advantage in Otto-like two-stroke quantum engines
• No-go theorem for entanglement distillation using catalysis
• Covariant catalysis requires correlations and good quantum reference frames degrade little
• Quantum Foundations of Classical Reversible Computing
• Catalysis always degrades external quantum correlations
• Randomness for quantum channels:Genericity of catalysis and quantum advantage of uniformness
• Catalytic and asymptotic equivalence for quantum entanglement
• Maximizing free energy gain
• Quantum Thermal Analogs of Electric Circuits: A Universal Approach
• A hierarchy of thermal processes collapses under catalysis
• Catalytic Gaussian thermal operations
• Quantum catalysis in cavity quantum electrodynamics
• Almost thermal operations: inhomogeneous reservoirs
• Coherent heat transfer leads to genuine quantum enhancement in the performances of continuous engines
• Second Law of Entanglement Manipulation with Entanglement Battery
• Catalytic transformations for thermal operations
• A Compendious Review of Majorization-Based Resource Theories: Quantum Information and Quantum Thermodynamics
• Quantum dichotomies and coherent thermodynamics beyond first-order asymptotics
• Cooling to absolute zero: The unattainability principle
• Time-extensive classical and quantum correlations in thermal machines
• Quantum thermodynamics with coherence: Covariant Gibbs-preserving operation is characterized by the free energy
• Communication with Quantum Catalysts
• Thermodynamic state convertibility is determined by qubit cooling and heating
• Role of energy-invariant assistants in energy extraction from quantum batteries
• Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry
• Cooling and work extraction under memory-assisted Markovian thermal processes
• Minimizing Dissipation via Interacting Environments: Quadratic Convergence to Landauer Bound
• Unlocking inaccessible performance of the quantum refrigerator with catalysts
• Experimental Catalytic Amplification of Asymmetry
• Finite-size catalysis in quantum resource theories
• Advantage of flexible catalysis for entanglement and quantum thermodynamics