Geometrical bounds on irreversibility in squeezed thermal bath

TL;DR

This paper explores how geometrical bounds on irreversibility in quantum thermodynamics are affected by a system interacting with a squeezed thermal bath, revealing that squeezing can reduce irreversibility and tighten bounds.

Contribution

It introduces a geometrical framework for analyzing irreversibility bounds in quantum systems coupled to squeezed baths, highlighting the impact of squeezing on thermodynamic irreversibility.

Findings

Squeezing shifts the bounds of irreversibility differently under dissipation and dephasing.

Squeezing reduces the critical times for irreversibility and bounds to reach equilibrium.

Squeezing improves thermodynamic performance without violating the second law.

Abstract

Irreversible entropy production (IEP) plays an important role in quantum thermodynamic processes. Here we investigate the geometrical bounds of IEP in nonequilibrium thermodynamics by exemplifying a system coupled to a squeezed thermal bath subject to dissipation and dephasing, respectively. We find that the geometrical bounds of the IEP always shift in contrary way under dissipation and dephasing, where the lower and upper bounds turning to be tighter occurs in the situation of dephasing and dissipation, respectively. However, either under dissipation or under dephasing, we may reduce both the critical time of the IEP itself and the critical time of the bounds for reaching an equilibrium by harvesting the benefits of squeezing effects, in which the values of the IEP, quantifying the degree of thermodynamic irreversibility, also becomes smaller. Therefore, due to the nonequilibrium nature of the squeezed thermal bath, the system-bath interaction energy brings prominent impact on the IEP, leading to tightness of its bounds. Our results are not contradictory with the second law of thermodynamics by involving squeezing of the bath as an available resource, which can improve the performance of quantum thermodynamic devices.