Local Thermal Operations and Classical Communication

TL;DR

This paper introduces Local Thermal Operations and Classical Communication (LTOCC), a new framework in quantum thermodynamics that characterizes the limits of state transformations under locality, thermal constraints, and communication.

Contribution

It formalizes LTOCC, develops thermal tensor tools, and explores their implications for quantum entanglement detection and thermodynamic transformations.

Findings

LTOCC protocols form a hierarchy with inclusion relations.

No CHSH violation under LTOCC in single-copy scenarios.

A gap exists between thermal and athermal local operations in entanglement detection.

Abstract

In quantum thermodynamics, understanding the interplay between locality, thermal constraints, and communication remains an open challenge. In this manuscript, we introduce Local Thermal Operations and Classical Communication (LTOCC), a novel operational framework that unifies the distant laboratories paradigm with thermodynamic restrictions, defining the fundamental limits on transformations between spatially separated systems. We establish a hierarchy of LTOCC protocols, demonstrating inclusion relations between different levels and revealing their deep connection to semilocal thermal operations. To formalize this framework, we develop thermal tensors and bithermal tensors, extending stochastic and tristochastic tensors to thermodynamic settings and providing new mathematical tools for constrained quantum processes. Finally, we present limitations imposed by LTOCC on single- and multi-copy CHSH scenario, demonstrating no violation in former and a gap between thermal and athermal local operations in the latter with respect to their capability to detect entanglement.