Work extraction from quantum systems with bounded fluctuations in work

Jonathan G. Richens () and Lluis Masanes
Additional contact information
Jonathan G. Richens: Controlled Quantum Dynamics Theory Group, Imperial College London
Lluis Masanes: University College London

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract In the standard framework of thermodynamics, work is a random variable whose average is bounded by the change in free energy of the system. This average work is calculated without regard for the size of its fluctuations. Here we show that for some processes, such as reversible cooling, the fluctuations in work diverge. Realistic thermal machines may be unable to cope with arbitrarily large fluctuations. Hence, it is important to understand how thermodynamic efficiency rates are modified by bounding fluctuations. We quantify the work content and work of formation of arbitrary finite dimensional quantum states when the fluctuations in work are bounded by a given amount c. By varying c we interpolate between the standard and minimum free energies. We derive fundamental trade-offs between the magnitude of work and its fluctuations. As one application of these results, we derive the corrected Carnot efficiency of a qubit heat engine with bounded fluctuations.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13511 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms13511

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13511

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().