Thermodynamic meaning and power of non-Markovianity

TL;DR

This paper explores how non-Markovian memory effects influence thermodynamic quantities like work, revealing that such effects can enable work revivals and increase extractable work even amid rising entropy, with implications for quantum thermodynamics and information theory.

Contribution

It establishes a fundamental link between non-Markovianity and thermodynamic work, providing new insights into work extraction and quantum information protocols in non-Markovian environments.

Findings

Non-Markovian effects can cause revivals of extractable work.

Non-Markovianity can increase work extraction despite entropy increase.

Implications for quantum thermodynamics and quantum information protocols.

Abstract

We establish a connection between non-Markovian memory effects and thermodynamical quantities such as work. We show how memory effects can be interpreted as revivals of work that can be extracted from a quantum system. We prove that non-Markovianity may allow an increase in the extractable work even when the entropy of the system is increasing. Our results have important implications both in quantum thermodynamics and in quantum information theory. In the former context they pave the way to the understanding of concepts like work in a non-Markovian open system scenario. In the latter context they lead to interesting consequences for quantum state merging protocols in presence of noise.