Low-temperature thermodynamics with quantum coherence.

ABSTRACT: Thermal operations are an operational model of non-equilibrium quantum thermodynamics. In the absence of coherence between energy levels, exact state transition conditions under thermal operations are known in terms of a mathematical relation called thermo-majorization. But incorporating coherence has turned out to be challenging, even under the relatively tractable model wherein all Gibbs state-preserving quantum channels are included. Here we find a mathematical generalization of thermal operations at low temperatures, 'cooling maps', for which we derive the necessary and sufficient state transition condition. Cooling maps that saturate recently discovered bounds on coherence transfer are realizable as thermal operations, motivating us to conjecture that all cooling maps are thermal oper

SUBMITTER: Narasimhachar V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4506506 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature