On entropy production for controlled Markovian evolution

TL;DR

This paper investigates how external control influences entropy production in thermodynamic and quantum systems, providing theoretical insights and applications to cooling and convergence to equilibrium.

Contribution

It derives fundamental relationships between control forces and entropy production rates in both classical and quantum systems, extending existing thermodynamic theories.

Findings

Control forces affect entropy production rates significantly.

Results apply to both classical thermodynamic and quantum systems.

Applications include macromolecular cooling and convergence control.

Abstract

We consider thermodynamic systems with finitely many degrees of freedom and subject to an external control action. We derive some basic results on the dependence of the relative entropy production rate on the controlling force. Applications to macromolecular cooling and to controlling the convergence to equilibrium rate are sketched. Analogous results are derived for closed and open n-level quantum systems.