Coherent heat exchange in a prethermalizing open quantum system

TL;DR

This paper studies how quantum coherence affects heat exchange and entropy production in a prethermalizing open quantum system using quantum stochastic thermodynamics and compares measurement schemes.

Contribution

It introduces a fluctuation theorem for heat exchange that accounts for initial quantum coherence using the End-Point Measurement scheme.

Findings

Quantum coherence influences heat exchange statistics.

EPM scheme captures quantum effects missed by TPM.

Prethermal phase exhibits distinct thermodynamic behavior.

Abstract

We investigate a simple model exhibiting a prethermal phase, i.e. a metastable state that emerges before full thermalization, through the framework of quantum stochastic thermodynamics. We explore the effects of quantum coherence in the energy eigenbasis of the initial state of the system on the process of heat exchange with a bath, and their contribution to entropy production as quantified by a heat-exchange fluctuation theorem. Such relation is derived using the End-Point Measurement (EPM) scheme, a protocol that accounts for initial quantum coherence in the statistics of energy exchanges resulting from a non-equilibrium process. We compare these results with those obtained from the widely used Two-Point Measurement (TPM) scheme which, by construction, fails to capture such quantum effects.