Quantum Causal Structure and Quantum Thermodynamics

TL;DR

This thesis advances understanding of quantum causal structures using entropy methods and develops an axiomatic framework for error-tolerant microscopic thermodynamics, highlighting limitations and new insights in both areas.

Contribution

It introduces new entropic constraints for causal structures and a novel axiomatic approach for modeling finite-precision thermodynamic processes at the quantum level.

Findings

Entropy vectors cannot distinguish classical from quantum causes in certain structures.

The framework yields smooth entropy measures for adiabatic processes.

A unique function characterizes state transformations at thermodynamic equilibrium.

Abstract

This thesis reports progress in two domains, causal structures and microscopic thermodynamics, both of which are pertinent in the development of quantum technologies. The first part is dedicated to the analysis of causal structure, which encodes the relationship between observed variables, in general restricting the set of possible correlations between them. Our considerations rely on a recent entropy vector method. Based on this, we develop techniques for deriving entropic constraints to differentiate between causal structures. We provide sufficient conditions for entropy vectors to be realisable within a causal structure and derive new, improved necessary conditions in terms of so-called non-Shannon inequalities. We also report that for a family of causal structures, including the bipartite Bell scenario and the bilocal causal structure, entropy vectors are unable to distinguish between classical and quantum causes, in spite of the existence of quantum correlations that are not classically reproducible. Hence, further development is needed in order to understand cause from a quantum perspective. In the second part we explore an axiomatic framework for modelling error-tolerant processes in microscopic thermodynamics. Our axiomatisation allows for the accommodation of finite precision levels, crucial for describing experiments in the microscopic regime. It leads to the emergence of manageable quantities that give insights into the feasibility and expenditure of processes, which for adiabatic processes are shown to be smooth entropy measures. Our framework also leads to thermodynamic behaviour at the macroscopic scale, meaning that for thermodynamic equilibrium states a unique function provides necessary and sufficient conditions for state transformations, like in the traditional second law.