Nonequilibrium work distributions in quantum impurity system-bath mixing processes

TL;DR

This paper introduces an exact method for calculating work distributions in quantum impurity systems during nonequilibrium processes, accounting for strong, non-Markovian couplings, and verifies fundamental fluctuation relations.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel, exact computational approach based on dissipaton equations to evaluate work distributions in complex quantum impurity systems.

Findings

Method accurately reproduces Jarzynski and Crooks relations.

Reveals detailed information on large deviation behaviors.

Demonstrated with a spin-boson model system.

Abstract

The fluctuation theorem, where the central quantity is the work distribution, is an important characterization of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. In this work, based on the dissipaton-equation-of-motion theory, we develop an exact method to evaluate the work distributions in quantum impurity system-bath mixing processes, in the presence of non-Markovian and strong couplings. Our results not only precisely reproduce the Jarzynski equality and Crooks relation, but also reveal rich information on large deviation. The numerical demonstrations are carried out with a spin-boson model system.