We study heat transfers in a single level quantum dot strongly coupled to fermionic reservoirs and subjected to a time-dependent protocol modulating the dot energy as well as the dot-reservoir coupling strength. The dynamics is described using nonequilibrium Greens functions (NEGFs) evaluated to first order beyond quasi-static driving. We show that any heat definition expressed as an energy change in the reservoir energy plus any fraction of the system-reservoir interaction is not an exact differential when evaluated along reversible isothermal transformations, except when that fraction is zero. However, even in that latter case the reversible heat divided by temperature, namely the entropy, does not satisfy the third law of thermodynamics and diverges in the low temperature limit. Our results cast doubts on the possibility to define a thermodynamically consistent notion of heat expressed as the expectation value of some Hamiltonian terms.
Work and heat exchanged during sudden quenches of strongly coupled quantum systems
University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）；Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, NIST and University of Maryland, College Park（美国国家标准与技术研究院与马里兰大学量子信息与计算联合中心）；NSF Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学国家科学基金会稳健量子模拟研究所）；Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学化学与生物化学系）；Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学物理科学与技术研究所）；Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学物理系）；InQubator for Quantum Simulation (IQuS), Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle（华盛顿大学物理系量子模拟创新中心）；Center for Quantum Information and Control, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque（新墨西哥大学量子信息与控制中心）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque（新墨西哥大学物理与天文学系）
