First Law of Quantum Thermodynamics in a Driven Open Two-Level System

TL;DR

This paper investigates the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of a driven open two-level quantum system, exploring how heat and work contributions depend on trajectories and proposing new definitions based on classical concepts.

Contribution

It introduces two novel definitions of heat and work in quantum systems, clarifies their trajectory dependence, and applies these to a periodically driven qubit with dissipation.

Findings

Heat and work contributions are trajectory-dependent.

Contributions from dissipation can be reinterpreted as work.

Results demonstrated on a driven qubit interacting with a bath.

Abstract

Assigning the variations of internal energy into heat or work contributions is a challenging task due to the fact that these properties are trajectory dependent. A number of proposals have been put forward for open quantum systems following an arbitrary dynamics. We here focus on non-equilibrium thermodynamics of a two-level system and explore, in addition to the conventional approach, two definitions motivated by either classical work or heat, in which the driving Hamiltonian or the trajectory itself are respectively used to set up a reference basis. We first give the thermodynamic properties for an arbitrary dynamics and illustrate the results on the Bloch sphere. Then, we solve the particular example of a periodically driven qubit interacting with a dissipative and decoherence bath. Our results illustrate the trajectory-dependent character of heat and work, and how contributions originally assigned to dissipation in the Lindblad equation can become coherent part assigned to work.