Experimental investigation of coherence contributions to a nonequilibrium thermodynamic process in a driven quantum system

TL;DR

This paper experimentally investigates how quantum coherence contributes to entropy production in a driven quantum system, verifying a generalized Clausius inequality and enhancing understanding of nonequilibrium thermodynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental analysis of coherence contributions to entropy in a driven quantum system using NMR technology.

Findings

Coherence significantly contributes to entropy production.

Verified the generalized Clausius inequality in a quantum context.

Demonstrated the role of coherence in nonequilibrium thermodynamics.

Abstract

The work done when a system at thermal equilibrium is externally driven by a unitary control parameter leads to irreversible entropy production. The entropy produced can be thought of as a combination of coherence generation and a population mismatch between the target equilibrium state and the actually achieved final state. We experimentally explored this out-of-equilibrium process in an NMR quantum processor and studied the contribution of coherence to irreversible entropy generation. We verified a generalized Clausius inequality, which affirms that irreversible entropy production is lower-bounded.