Demonstrating Quantum Microscopic Reversibility Using Coherent States of Light

Abstract

The principle of microscopic reversibility lies at the core of fluctuation theorems, which have extended our understanding of the second law of thermodynamics to the statistical level. In the quantum regime, however, this elementary principle should be amended as the system energy cannot be sharply determined at a given quantum phase space point. In this Letter, we propose and experimentally test a quantum generalization of the microscopic reversibility when a quantum system interacts with a heat bath through energy-preserving unitary dynamics. Quantum effects can be identified by noting that the backward process is less likely to happen in the existence of quantum coherence between the system's energy eigenstates. The experimental demonstration has been realized by mixing coherent and thermal states in a beam-splitter, followed by heterodyne detection in an optical setup. We verify that the quantum modification for the principle of microscopic reversibility is critical in the low-temperature limit, while the quantum-to-classical transition is observed as the temperature of the thermal field gets higher.

arXiv comment6+3 pages

References in corpus (34)

• A nonequilibrium equality for free energy differences
• The Entropy Production Fluctuation Theorem and the Nonequilibrium Work Relation for Free Energy Differences
• Dynamical Ensembles in Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
• Nonequilibrium fluctuations, fluctuation theorems, and counting statistics in quantum systems
• Colloquium. Quantum Fluctuation Relations: Foundations and Applications
• Verification of the Crooks fluctuation theorem and recovery of RNA folding free energies
• The role of quantum information in thermodynamics --- a topical review
• Fundamental limitations for quantum and nano thermodynamics
• Fluctuation theorems: Work is not an observable
• Probing Planck-scale physics with quantum optics
• Irreversible entropy production, from quantum to classical
• Experimental reconstruction of work distribution and verification of fluctuation relations at the full quantum level
• Thermodynamics of a Colloidal Particle in a Time-Dependent Non-Harmonic Potential
• Experimental nonclassicality of single-photon-added thermal light states
• Test of Jarzynski and Crooks fluctuation relations in an electronic system
• Photonic Maxwell's demon
• Fully quantum fluctuation theorems
• Quantum fluctuation theorems for arbitrary environments: adiabatic and non-adiabatic entropy production
• Fluctuation theorems for quantum processes
• Quantum fluctuation theorems beyond two-point measurements
• The second law of quantum thermodynamics as an equality
• The quantum-classical correspondence principle for work distributions
• Elementary Thermal Operations
• Clock-work trade-off relation for coherence in quantum thermodynamics
• Thermodynamics as a Consequence of Information Conservation
• Fluctuation Theorems for a Quantum Channel
• Experimental Validation of Fully Quantum Fluctuation Theorems Using Dynamic Bayesian Networks
• Quantum entropy production in phase space
• Coherent fluctuation relations: from the abstract to the concrete
• Quantum Fluctuation Theorems
• Quantum fluctuation theorems in the strong damping limit
• Quantum Fluctuation Theorem under Continuous Measurement and Feedback
• Energetic fluctuations in an open quantum process
• Emergence of a fluctuation relation for heat in nonequilibrium Landauer processes

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Experimental signature of initial quantum coherence on entropy production
• Stochastic quantum trajectories demonstrate the Quantum Zeno Effect in open spin 1/2, spin 1 and spin 3/2 systems
• Experimental demonstration of generalized quantum fluctuation theorems in the presence of coherence
• Evidence of genuine quantum effects in nonequilibrium entropy production
• Energy exchange statistics and fluctuation theorem for non-thermal asymptotic states