Entropy Production of Open Quantum System in Multi-Bath Environment

TL;DR

This paper investigates entropy production in open quantum systems coupled to multiple heat baths, revealing how different bath types influence entropy behavior across temperature regimes.

Contribution

It introduces a refined entropy production rate accounting for multiple baths and distinguishes bosonic and fermionic bath effects.

Findings

Entropy production rates differ between bosonic and fermionic baths at high temperatures.

At low temperatures, both bath types exhibit similar entropy production asymptotic behavior.

The study clarifies the role of detailed balance in complex quantum environments.

Abstract

We study the entropy production of an open quantum system surrounded by a complex environment consisting of several heat baths at different temperatures. The detailed balance is elaborated in view of the distinguishable channels provided by the couplings to different heat baths, and a refined entropy production rate is derived accordingly. It is demonstrated that the entropy production rates can characterize the quantum statistical property of the baths: the bosonic and fermionic baths display different behaviors in the high-temperature limit while they have the same asymptotic behavior at low temperature.