Microscopic Work Distribution of Small System in Quantum Isothermal Process

TL;DR

This paper derives the microscopic work fluctuation for a small quantum system during an isothermal process, showing it vanishes and aligns with free energy difference, thus supporting the second law's minimum work principle.

Contribution

It provides an exact microscopic expression for work fluctuation in small quantum systems during non-equilibrium isothermal processes and proves its vanishing nature.

Findings

Work fluctuation vanishes in isothermal process

Most probable work equals free energy difference

Supports second law for small quantum systems

Abstract

For a two-level quantum mechanical system, we derive microscopically the exact expression for the fluctuation of microscopic work in a multi-step non-equilibrium process, and we rigorously prove that in an isothermal process, the fluctuation is vanishingly small, and the most probabilistic work just equals to the difference of the free energy. Our study demonstrates that the convergence of the microscopic work in the isothermal process is due to the nature of isothermal process rather than usual thermodynamic limit condition. Our investigation justifies the validity of "minimum work principle" formulation of the second law even for a small system far from thermodynamic limit.