Quantum Thermodynamics and Quantum Coherence Engines

Abstract

Advantages of quantum effects in several technologies, such as computation and communication, have already been well appreciated, and some devices, such as quantum computers and communication links, exhibiting superiority to their classical counterparts have been demonstrated. The close relationship between information and energy motivates us to explore if similar quantum benefits can be found in energy technologies. Investigation of performance limits for a broader class of information-energy machines is the subject of the rapidly emerging field of quantum thermodynamics. Extension of classical thermodynamical laws to the quantum realm is far from trivial. This short review presents some of the recent efforts in this fundamental direction and focuses on quantum heat engines and their efficiency bounds when harnessing energy from non-thermal resources, specifically those containing quantum coherence and correlations.

38 pages, 22 figures

References in corpus (21)

• Quantum Thermodynamic Cycles and quantum heat engines
• Fluctuation theorems: Work is not an observable
• Quantum coherence, time-translation symmetry and thermodynamics
• Second Law of Thermodynamics with Discrete Quantum Feedback Control
• The second law, Maxwell's daemon and work derivable from quantum heat engines
• Absence of Thermalization in Nonintegrable Systems
• Observation of Dicke Superradiance for Two Artificial Atoms in a Cavity with High Decay Rate
• Quantum Thermodynamic Cycles and Quantum Heat Engines (II)
• Quantum thermal machines and batteries
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• Gibbs-Preserving Maps outperform Thermal Operations in the quantum regime
• Thermodynamic cost of creating correlations
• Driven Spin Systems as Quantum Thermodynamic Machines: Fundamental Limits
• Quantum jumps and entropy production
• Quantum thermodynamically consistent local master equations
• Energetic and entropic effects of bath-induced coherences
• Heat Bath Algorithmic Cooled Quantum Otto Engines
• Entropy, Divergence, and Majorization in Classical and Quantum Thermodynamics
• Out-of-equilibrium quantum thermodynamics in the Bloch sphere: temperature and internal entropy production
• Work fluctuation and total entropy production in nonequilibrium processes
• Renyi divergences, Bures geometry and quantum statistical thermodynamics

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Many-body quantum thermal machines
• Ergotropy from quantum and classical correlations
• Low-temperature quantum thermometry boosted by coherence generation
• Ground-state cooling of mechanical resonators by quantum reservoir engineering
• A Quantum Otto Engine with Shortcuts to Thermalization and Adiabaticity
• Few-qubit quantum refrigerator for cooling a multi-qubit system
• Finite-time two-spin quantum Otto engines: shortcuts to adiabaticity vs. irreversibility
• Quantum thermodynamic derivation of the energy resolution limit in magnetometry
• Enantiomer detection via Quantum Otto cycle
• Boosting Biomolecular Switch Efficiency With Quantum Coherence
• Relativistic quantum Otto heat engine using a three-level Unruh-DeWitt detector