Correlations in quantum thermodynamics: Heat, work, and entropy production

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum thermodynamics framework that incorporates correlations, defining heat, work, and entropy production, and demonstrates how classical thermodynamics emerges from quantum principles.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum formulation of the first law that explicitly accounts for correlations and derives conditions under which the second law emerges.

Findings

Correlation influences energy exchange in quantum systems

The quantum first law reduces to classical form in certain limits

Conditions for the emergence of the second law are identified

Abstract

We provide a characterization of energy in the form of exchanged heat and work between two interacting constituents of a closed, bipartite, correlated quantum system. By defining a binding energy we derive a consistent quantum formulation of the first law of thermodynamics, in which the role of correlations becomes evident, and this formulation reduces to the standard classical picture in relevant systems. We next discuss the emergence of the second law of thermodynamics under certain---but fairly general---conditions such as the Markovian assumption. We illustrate the role of correlations and interactions in thermodynamics through two examples.