Measurements in the L\'{e}vy quantum walk

We study the quantum walk subjected to measurements with a L\'evy waiting-time distribution. We find that the system has a sub-ballistic behavior instead of a diffusive one. We obtain an analytical expression for the exponent of the power law of the variance as a function of the characteristic parameter of the L\'evy distribution.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Quantum walk, entanglement and thermodynamic laws

We consider an special dynamics of a quantum walk (QW) on a line. Initially, the walker localized at the origin of the line with arbitrary chirality, evolves to an asymptotic stationary state. In this stationary state a measurement is performed and the state resulting from this measurement is used to start a second QW evolution to achieve a second asymptotic stationary state. In previous works, we developed the thermodynamics associated with the entanglement between the coin and position degrees of freedom in the QW. Here we study the application of the first and second laws of thermodynamics to the process between the two stationary states mentioned above. We show that: i) the entropy change has upper and lower bounds that are obtained analytically as a function of the initial conditions. ii) the energy change is associated to a heat-transfer process.Comment: It was accepted to publish in Physica

Alternative thermodynamic cycle for the Stirling machine

We develop an alternative thermodynamic cycle for the Stirling machine, where the polytropic process plays a central role. Analytical expressions for pressure and temperatures of the working gas are obtained as a function of the volume and the parameter which characterizes the polytropic process. This approach achieves a closer agreement with the experimental pressure-volume diagram and can be adapted to any type of the Stirling engine

Resonant quantum kicked rotor with two internal levels

We develop a system consisting of a quantum kicked rotor with an additional degree of freedom. This models a single two-level atom with internal ground and excited states, and it is characterized by its quantum resonances with ballistic spreading and by the entanglement between the internal and momentum degrees of freedom. These behaviors establish an equivalence between our model and the usual quantum walk on the line.Comment: 8 page

Initial-state-dependent thermalization in open qubits

We study, from a thermodynamic perspective, the equilibrium states of a qubit interacting with an arbitrary environment of dimension N>>2. We show that even in presence of memory about the initial state, in some cases the qubit can be considered in a thermal state characterized by an entanglement Hamiltonian, which encodes the effects of the environment, and an initial-state- dependent entanglement temperature that measures the degree of entanglement generated between the system and its environment. Geometrical aspects of the thermal states are studied, and the results are confirmed for the concrete case of the Quantum Walk on the Line.Comment: 3 figure

Temperature of a finite-dimensional quantum system

A general expression for the temperature of a finite-dimensional quantum system is deduced from thermodynamic arguments. At equilibrium, this magnitude coincides with the standard thermodynamic temperature. Furthermore, it is well-defined even far from equilibrium. Explicit formulas for the temperature of two and three-dimensional quantum systems are presented, and some additional relevant aspects of this quantity are discussed

Relation between the usual and the entanglement temperature, in a simple quantum system

We develop a thermodynamical theory to describe the behavior of the entanglement between a single two-level atom with a single mode of the electromagnetic field. The resonant Jaynes-Cummings model is used to study both the entanglement thermodynamics, in particular the entanglement temperature, and its connection with the average number of photons in the optical cavity. We find that this entanglement temperature has a strong dependence with the initial conditions of the atom. We show that the entanglement temperature between the photons and the atom defined in this work is the same temperature obtained within the Jaynes-Cummings model at finite temperature developed in the Thermo-Field Dynamics formalism.Comment: published in, Physica A 437, 2015, 47

Stirling engine operating at low temperature difference

The paper develops the dynamics and thermodynamics of Stirling engines that run with temperature differences below 100 0C. The working gas pressure is analytically expressed using an alternative thermodynamic cycle. The shaft dynamics is studied using its rotational equation of motion. It is found that the initial volumes of the cold and hot working gas play a non-negligible role in the functioning of the engine.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

The quantum walk temperature

A thermodynamic theory is developed to describe the behavior of the entanglement between the coin and position degrees of freedom of the quantum walk on the line. This theory shows that, in spite of the unitary evolution, a steady state is established after a Markovian transient stage. This study suggests that if a quantum dynamics is developed in a composite Hilbert space (i.e. the tensor product of several sub-spaces) then the behavior of an operator that only belongs to one of the sub-spaces may camouflage the unitary character of the global evolution.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

The Fluidyne engine

The Fluidyne is a two-part hot-air engine, which has the peculiarity that both its power piston and displacer are liquids. Both parts operate in tandem with the common working gas (air) transferring energy from the displacer to the piston side, from which work is extracted. We describe analytically the thermodynamics of the Fluidyne engine using the approach previously developed for the Stirling engine. We obtain explicit expressions for the amplitude of the power piston movement and for the working gas temperatures and pressure as functions of the engine parameters. We also study numerically the power and efficiency of the engine in terms of the phase shift between the motions of piston and displacer.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure