Trading coherence and entropy by a quantum Maxwell demon
A. V. Lebedev, D. Oehri, G. B. Lesovik, G. Blatter

TL;DR
This paper proposes a quantum Maxwell demon setup that enables entropy reduction in a quantum system through a non-unital, energy-conserving channel, leading to a novel quantum-thermodynamic engine capable of work extraction without waste heat.
Contribution
It introduces a new quantum engine based on a non-unital, energy-conserving channel that achieves entropy decrease and work extraction, a departure from traditional thermodynamic principles.
Findings
Entropy can decrease in a quantum system via a non-unital, energy-conserving channel.
A quantum Maxwell demon can be realized with a mesoscopic four-lead scatterer and a spin micro-environment.
The proposed engine operates with two cycles, enabling work extraction without local waste heat.
Abstract
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the entropy of a closed system is non-decreasing. Discussing the Second Law in the quantum world poses new challenges and provides new opportunities, involving fundamental quantum-information-theoretic questions and novel quantum-engineered devices. In quantum mechanics, systems with an evolution described by a so-called unital quantum channel evolve with a non-decreasing entropy. Here, we seek the opposite, a system described by a non-unital and, furthermore, energy-conserving channel that describes a system whose entropy decreases with time. We propose a setup involving a mesoscopic four-lead scatterer augmented by a micro-environment in the form of a spin that realizes this goal. Within this non-unital and energy-conserving quantum channel, the micro-environment acts with two non-commuting operations on the system in an autonomous way. We…
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