Thermodynamic length for far-from-equilibrium quantum systems

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2013-02-28

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Program

Citation of Original Publication

Sebastian Deffner and Eric Lutz, Thermodynamic length for far-from-equilibrium quantum systems, Phys. Rev. E 87, 022143 (2013), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.022143

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©2013 American Physical Society

Subjects

Abstract

We consider a closed quantum system initially at thermal equilibrium and driven by arbitrary external parameters. We derive a lower bound on the entropy production which we express in terms of the Bures angle between the nonequilibrium and the corresponding equilibrium state of the system. The Bures angle is an angle between mixed quantum states and defines a thermodynamic length valid arbitrarily far from equilibrium. As an illustration, we treat the case of a time-dependent harmonic oscillator for which we obtain analytic expressions for generic driving protocols.