Certifying ergotropy under partial information

TL;DR

This paper introduces a framework to certify the maximum work extractable from a quantum system using limited measurement data, applicable in realistic noisy experimental conditions.

Contribution

It provides a novel method to lower bound ergotropy with partial information, incorporating finite-statistics and shot noise considerations.

Findings

Framework successfully applied to synthetic and experimental data

Provides confidence-certified bounds on ergotropy under realistic conditions

Demonstrates robustness and practicality on IBM quantum hardware

Abstract

Ergotropy, the maximum work extractable from a quantum system, is a central resource in quantum physics. Computing ergotropy is well established when the system state is fully known, but its estimation under partial information remains an open problem. Here we introduce a general certification framework that lower bounds ergotropy using only the expectation values of a limited set of arbitrary observables. The method naturally applies in the finite-statistics regime, yielding confidence-certified bounds that explicitly incorporate shot noise. We benchmark our approach on both synthetic data and experimental measurements from an IBM quantum processor. This establishes a robust and experimentally accessible tool for certifying extractable work in realistic quantum settings.