Revealing the Work Cost of Generalized Thermal Baths

We derive the work cost of using generalized thermal baths from the physical equivalence of quantum mechanics under unitary transformations. We demonstrate our method by considering a qubit extracting work from a single bath to amplify a cavity field. There, we find that only half of the work invest...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alexandre Roulet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-12-01
Series:Entropy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/20/12/973
Description
Summary:We derive the work cost of using generalized thermal baths from the physical equivalence of quantum mechanics under unitary transformations. We demonstrate our method by considering a qubit extracting work from a single bath to amplify a cavity field. There, we find that only half of the work investment is converted into useful output, the rest being wasted as heat. These findings establish the method as a promising tool for studying quantum resources within the framework of classical thermodynamics.
ISSN:1099-4300