Open system trajectories specify fluctuating work but not heat

Based on the explicit knowledge of a Hamiltonian of mean force, the classical statistical mechanics and equilibrium thermodynamics of open systems in contact with a thermal environment at arbitrary interaction strength can be formulated. Even though the Hamiltonian of mean force uniquely determines the equilibrium phase space probability density of a strongly coupled open system the knowledge of this probability density alone is insufficient to determine the Hamiltonian of mean force, needed in constructing the underlying statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. We demonstrate that under the assumption that the Hamiltonian of mean force is known, an extension of thermodynamic structures from the level of averaged quantities to fluctuating objects (i.e. a stochastic thermodynamics) is possible. However, such a construction undesirably involves also a vast ambiguity. This situation is rooted in the eminent lack of a physical guiding principle allowing to distinguish a physically meaningful theory out of a multitude of other equally conceivable ones.Comment: 12 pages, further typos correcte

Decoherence and dissipation during a quantum XOR gate operation

The dynamics of a quantum XOR gate operation in a two-qubit system being coupled to a bath of quantum harmonic oscillators is investigated. Upon applying the numerical quasiadiabatic propagator path integral method, we obtain the numerically precise time-resolved evolution of this interacting two-qubit system in presence of time-dependent external fields without further approximations. We simulate the dissipative gate operation for characteristic experimental realizations of condensed matter qubits; namely, the flux and charge qubits realized in superconducting Josephson systems and qubits formed with semiconductor quantum dots. Moreover, we study systematically the quality of the XOR gate by determining the four characteristic gate quantifiers: fidelity, purity, the quantum degree, and the entanglement capability of the gate. Two different types of errors in the qubits have been modelled, i.e., bit-flip errors and phase errors. The dependence of the quality of the gate operation on the environmental temperature, on the friction strength stemming from the system-bath interaction, and on the strength of the interqubit coupling is systematically explored: Our main finding is that the four gate quantifiers depend only weakly on temperature, but are rather sensitive to the friction strength.Comment: 16 pages including 1 table and 5 figure

Decoherence in resonantly driven bistable systems

We study dissipative tunneling in a double well potential that is driven close to a resonance between the lowest tunnel doublet and a singlet. While the coherent dynamics can be described well within a three-level approximation, dissipative transitions to levels outside the singlet and the doublet may play a crucial role. Moreover, such transitions can enhance the entropy production significantly.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, vch-book.cl

Finite Bath Fluctuation Theorem

We demonstrate that a Finite Bath Fluctuation Theorem of the Crooks type holds for systems that have been thermalized via weakly coupling it to a bath with energy independent finite specific heat. We show that this theorem reduces to the known canonical and microcanonical fluctuation theorems in the two respective limiting cases of infinite and vanishing specific heat of the bath. The result is elucidated by applying it to a 2D hard disk colliding elastically with few other hard disks in a rectangular box with perfectly reflecting walls.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Added Sec. V and App.

Comment on "Experimental Verification of a Jarzynski-Related Information-Theoretic Equality by a Single Trapped Ion" PRL 120 010601 (2018)

The target paper presents an experimental verification of a "Jarzynski-related" equality. We show that the latter equality is in fact not related to the Jarzynski equality.Comment: 1 pag

Quantum Bochkov-Kuzovlev Work Fluctuation Theorems

The quantum version of the Bochkov-Kuzovlev identity is derived on the basis of the appropriate definition of work as the difference of the measured internal energies of a quantum system at the beginning and at the end of an external action on the system given by a prescribed protocol. According to the spirit of the original Bochkov-Kuzovlev approach, we adopt the "exclusive" viewpoint, meaning that the coupling to the external work-source is {\it not} counted as part of the internal energy. The corresponding canonical and microcanonical quantum fluctuation theorems are derived as well, and are compared to the respective theorems obtained within the "inclusive" approach. The relations between the quantum inclusive-work $w$, the exclusive-work $w_0$ and the dissipated-work $w_{dis}$, are discussed and clarified. We show by an explicit example that $w_0$ and $w_{dis}$ are distinct stochastic quantities obeying different statistics.Comment: 16 page

Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Brownian Motion

With this work we elaborate on the physics of quantum noise in thermal equilibrium and in stationary non-equilibrium. Starting out from the celebrated quantum fluctuation-dissipation theorem we discuss some important consequences that must hold for open, dissipative quantum systems in thermal equilibrium. The issue of quantum dissipation is exemplified with the fundamental problem of a damped harmonic quantum oscillator. The role of quantum fluctuations is discussed in the context of both, the nonlinear generalized quantum Langevin equation and the path integral approach. We discuss the consequences of the time-reversal symmetry for an open dissipative quantum dynamics and, furthermore, point to a series of subtleties and possible pitfalls. The path integral methodology is applied to the decay of metastable states assisted by quantum Brownian noise.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX, submitted to Chaos special issue "100 Years of Brownian Motion

Time parameters and Lorentz transformations of relativistic stochastic processes

Rules for the transformation of time parameters in relativistic Langevin equations are derived and discussed. In particular, it is shown that, if a coordinate-time parameterized process approaches the relativistic Juttner-Maxwell distribution, the associated proper-time parameterized process converges to a modified momentum distribution, differing by a factor proportional to the inverse energy.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur