Quantum thermodynamics of nanoscale steady states far from equilibrium

Abstract

We develop an exact quantum thermodynamic description for a noninteracting nanoscale steady state that couples strongly with multiple reservoirs. It is demonstrated that there exists a steady-state extension of the thermodynamic function that correctly accounts for the multiterminal Landauer-Büttiker formula of quantum transport of charge, energy or heat, via the nonequilibrium thermodynamic relations. Its explicit form is obtained for a single bosonic or fermionic level in the wide-band limit, and corresponding thermodynamic forces (affinities) are identified. Nonlinear generalization of the Onsager reciprocity relations are derived. We suggest that the steady-state thermodynamic function is also capable of characterizing the heat current fluctuations of the critical transport where the thermal fluctuations dominate. It is also pointed out that the suggested nonequilibrium steady-state thermodynamic relations seemingly persist for a spin-degenerate single level with local interaction.

9 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (10)

• Single-mode heat conduction by photons
• Quantum Thermodynamics: A Nonequilibrium Green's Functions Approach
• Finite quantum dissipation: the challenge of obtaining specific heat
• An expression for stationary distribution in nonequilibrium steady state
• Dissipative Transport: Thermal Contacts and Tunnelling Junctions
• Steady-state thermodynamics of non-interacting transport beyond weak coupling
• Friedel sum rule for an interacting multiorbital quantum dot
• Nonequilibrium density matrix for simultaneous heat and charge steady-state transport in quantum open systems
• Local entropy of a nonequilibrium fermion system
• Kondo peaks and dips in the differential conductance of a multi-lead quantum dot: Dependence on bias conditions

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Thermodynamics of precision in quantum non equilibrium steady states
• Quantum battery based on dipole-dipole interaction and external driving field
• Quantum control of nonlinear thermoelectricity at the nanoscale
• Partition of free energy for a Brownian quantum oscillator: Effect of dissipation and magnetic field
• Quantum counterpart of energy equipartition theorem for fermionic systems
• Transport and thermodynamics in quantum junctions: A scattering approach
• Contact geometry and quantum thermodynamics of nanoscale steady states
• Nonequilibrium free energy and information flow of a double quantum-dot system with Coulomb coupling
• Protecting coherence from the environment via Stark many-body localization in a Quantum-Dot Simulator