Microscopic Features of Bosonic Quantum Transport and Entropy Production

TL;DR

This paper explores the microscopic quantum features of bosonic transport and entropy production in non-equilibrium steady states, revealing non-negative entropy moments and proposing a fluctuation-inclusive efficiency concept.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic analysis of bosonic quantum transport, explicitly evaluates quantum fluctuations, and proposes an efficiency measure considering all fluctuations.

Findings

All moments of entropy production are non-negative.

Quantum fluctuations are explicitly calculated in the zero frequency limit.

A new efficiency concept incorporating quantum fluctuations is proposed.

Abstract

We investigate the microscopic features of bosonic quantum transport in a non-equilibrium steady state, which breaks time reversal invariance spontaneously. The analysis is based on the probability distributions, generated by the correlation functions of the particle current and the entropy production operator. The general approach is applied to an exactly solvable model with a point-like interaction driving the system away from equilibrium. The quantum fluctuations of the particle current and the entropy production are explicitly evaluated in the zero frequency limit. It is shown that all moments of the entropy production distribution are non-negative, which provides a microscopic version of the second law of thermodynamics. On this basis a concept of efficiency, taking into account all quantum fluctuations, is proposed and analysed. The role of the quantum statistics in this context is also discussed.