Thermodynamics of quantum systems with multiple conserved quantities.

ABSTRACT: Recently, there has been much progress in understanding the thermodynamics of quantum systems, even for small individual systems. Most of this work has focused on the standard case where energy is the only conserved quantity. Here we consider a generalization of this work to deal with multiple conserved quantities. Each conserved quantity, which, importantly, need not commute with the rest, can be extracted and stored in its own battery. Unlike the standard case, in which the amount of extractable energy is constrained, here there is no limit on how much of any individual conserved quantity can be extracted. However, other conserved quantities must be supplied, and the second law constrains the combination of extractable quantities and the trade-offs between them. We present explicit proto

SUBMITTER: Guryanova Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4941046 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature