We derive a thermodynamic uncertainty relation for general open quantum dynamics, described by a joint unitary evolution on a composite system comprising a system and an environment. By measuring the environmental state after the system-environment interaction, we bound the counting observables in the environment by the survival activity, which reduces to the dynamical activity in classical Markov processes. Remarkably, the relation derived herein holds for general open quantum systems with any counting observable and any initial state. Therefore, our relation is satisfied for classical Markov processes with arbitrary time-dependent transition rates and initial states. We apply our relation to continuous measurement and the quantum walk to find that the quantum nature of the system can enhance the precision. Moreover, we can make the lower bound arbitrarily small by employing appropriate continuous measurement.
Fluctuation theorems are fundamental results in non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Considering the fluctuation theorem with respect to the entropy production and an observable, we derive a new thermodynamic uncertainty relation which also applies to non-cyclic and time-reversal non-symmetric protocols. Furthermore, we investigate the relation between the thermodynamic uncertainty relation and the correlation between the entropy and the observable.
Entropy production characterizes irreversibility. This viewpoint allows us to consider the thermodynamic uncertainty relation, which states that a higher precision can be achieved at the cost of higher entropy production, as a relation between precision and irreversibility. Considering the original and perturbed dynamics, we show that the precision of an arbitrary counting observable in continuous measurement of quantum Markov processes is bounded from below by Loschmidt echo between the two dynamics, representing the irreversibility of quantum dynamics. When considering particular perturbed d…
Understanding current fluctuations is of fundamental importance and paves the way for the development of practical applications. According to the thermodynamic and kinetic uncertainty relations, the precision of currents can be constrained solely by total entropy production or dynamical activity. In this study, we derive a tighter bound on the precision of currents in terms of both thermodynamic and kinetic quantities, demonstrating that these quantities jointly constrain current fluctuations. The thermodynamic and kinetic uncertainty relations become particular cases of our result in asymptot…
We derive a thermodynamic uncertainty relation for first passage processes in quantum Markov chains. We consider first passage processes that stop after a fixed number of jumps, which contrasts with typical quantum Markov chains which end at a fixed time. We obtain bounds for the observables of the first passage processes in quantum Markov chains by the Loschmidt echo, which quantifies the extent of irreversibility in quantum many-body systems. Considering a particular case, we show that the lower bound corresponds to the quantum Fisher information, which plays a fundamental role in uncertaint…
We use quantum estimation theory to derive a thermodynamic uncertainty relation in Markovian open quantum systems, which bounds the fluctuation of continuous measurements. The derived quantum thermodynamic uncertainty relation holds for arbitrary continuous measurements satisfying a scaling condition. We derive two relations; the first relation bounds the fluctuation by the dynamical activity and the second one does so by the entropy production. We apply our bounds to a two-level atom driven by a laser field and a three-level quantum thermal machine with jump and diffusion measurements. Our re…
Thermodynamic uncertainty relations (TURs) place strict bounds on the fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities in terms of the associated entropy production. In this work we identify the tightest (and saturable) matrix-valued TUR that can be derived from the exchange fluctuation theorems describing the statistics of heat and particle flow between multiple systems. Our result holds for both quantum and classical systems, undergoing general non-Markovian and non-stationary processes. Moreover, it provides bounds not only for the variances, but also for the correlations between thermodynamic quan…
We study two-mode bosonic engines undergoing an Otto cycle. The energy exchange between the two bosonic systems is provided by a tunable unitary bilinear interaction in the mode operators modeling frequency conversion, whereas the cyclic operation is guaranteed by relaxation to two baths at different temperature after each interacting stage. By means of a two-point-measurement approach we provide the joint probability of the stochastic work and heat. We derive exact expressions for work and heat fluctuations, identities showing the interdependence among average extracted work, fluctuations and…
In classical Markov jump processes, current fluctuations can only be reduced at the cost of increased dissipation. To explore how quantum effects influence this trade-off, we analyze the uncertainty of steady-state currents in Markovian open quantum systems. We first consider three instructive examples and then systematically minimize the product of uncertainty and entropy production for small open quantum systems. As our main result, we find that the thermodynamic cost of reducing fluctuations can be lowered below the classical bound by coherence. We conjecture that this cost can be made arbi…
It is known that temperature estimates of macroscopic systems in equilibrium are most precise when their energy fluctuations are large. However, for nanoscale systems deviations from standard thermodynamics arise due to their interactions with the environment. Here we include such interactions and, using quantum estimation theory, derive a generalised thermodynamic uncertainty relation valid for classical and quantum systems at all coupling strengths. We show that the non-commutativity between the system's state and its effective energy operator gives rise to quantum fluctuations that increase…
Thermodynamics serves as a universal means for studying physical systems from an energy perspective. In recent years, with the establishment of the field of stochastic and quantum thermodynamics, the ideas of thermodynamics have been generalized to small fluctuating systems. Independently developed in mathematics and statistics, the optimal transport theory concerns the means by which one can optimally transport a source distribution to a target distribution, deriving a useful metric between probability distributions, called the Wasserstein distance. Despite their seemingly unrelated nature, a…
In recent letter [Phys.~Rev.~Lett {\bf 123}, 110602 (2019)], Y.~Hasegawa and T.~V.~Vu derived a thermodynamic uncertainty relation. But the bound of their relation is loose. In this comment, through minor changes, an improved bound is obtained. This improved bound is the same as the one obtained in [Phys.~Rev.~Lett {\bf 123}, 090604 (2019)] by A.~M.~Timpanaro {\it et. al.}, but the derivation here is straightforward.
An extension of the thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) to time-delayed Langevin systems has been recently proposed by T. V. Vu and Y. Hasegawa (arXiv:1809.06610v2). Here we show that the derivation is erroneous.
We investigate the thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR), \textit{i.e.} a trade-off between entropy production rate and relative power fluctuations, for nondegenerate three-level and degenerate four-level maser heat engines. In the nondegenerate case, we consider two slightly different configurations of three-level maser heat engine and contrast their degree of violation of standard TUR. In the high-temperature limit, standard TUR relation is always violated for both configurations. We also uncover an invariance of TUR under simultaneous rescaling of the matter-field coupling constant and s…
We generalize the thermodynamic uncertainty relation, providing an entropic upper bound for average fluxes in time-continuous steady-state systems (Gingrich et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 120601 (2016)), to time-discrete Markov chains and to systems under time-symmetric, periodic driving.
Discrete-time counterpart of thermodynamic uncertainty relation (conjectured in P. Pietzonka, et.al., arXiv:1702.07699 (2017)) with finite time interval is considered. We show that this relation do not hold by constructing a concrete counterexample to this. Our finding suggests that the proof of thermodynamic uncertainty relation with finite time interval, if true, should strongly rely on the fact that the time is continuous.
The thermodynamic uncertainty relations provide a universal trade-offs between entropy dissipation rate and fluctuations in transport current. This relation has been mostly used to estimate a minimum entropy dissipation rate by experimentally measuring current fluctuations. Here we consider joint currents and show that such uncertainty relations cannot be simultaneously achievable for any two currents, which leads to a potential underestimation of the minimum entropy dissipation rate.
To reveal the role of the quantumness in the Otto cycle and to discuss the validity of the thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) in the cycle, we study the quantum Otto cycle and its classical counterpart. In particular, we calculate exactly the mean values and relative error of thermodynamic quantities. In the quasistatic limit, quantumness reduces the productivity and precision of the Otto cycle compared to that in the absence of quantumness, whereas in the finite-time mode, it can increase the cycle's productivity and precision. Interestingly, as the strength (heat conductance) between t…
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation offers a universal energetic constraint on the relative magnitude of current fluctuations in nonequilibrium steady states. However, it has only been derived for long observation times. Here, we prove a recently conjectured finite-time thermodynamic uncertainty relation for steady-state current fluctuations. Our proof is based on a quadratic bound to the large deviation rate function for currents in the limit of a large ensemble of many copies.
We introduce a model for a periodically driven electron pump that sequentially interact with an arbitrary number of heat and particle reservoirs. Exact expressions for the thermodynamic fluxes, such as entropy production and particle flows are derived arbitrarily far from equilibrium. We use the present model to perform a comparative study of thermodynamic uncertainty relations that are valid for systems with time-periodic driving.
Indirect measurement can be used to read out the outcome of a quantum system without resorting to a straightforward approach, and it is the foundation of the measurement uncertainty relations that explain the incompatibility of conjugate observables. While measurement uncertainty has been established for the accuracy of quantum measurement, thermodynamic uncertainty is being researched as a new perspective on the accuracy of fluctuating observables that trades off a physical cost in the classical or quantum regime. Following these ideas, we derive a new measurement uncertainty with respect to …
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation, originally derived for classical Markov-jump processes, provides a trade-off relation between precision and dissipation, deepening our understanding of the performance of quantum thermal machines. Here, we examine the interplay of quantum system coherences and heat current fluctuations on the validity of the thermodynamics uncertainty relation in the quantum regime. To achieve the current statistics, we perform a full counting statistics simulation of the Redfield quantum master equation. We focus on steady-state quantum absorption refrigerators where no…
Feedback-Enhanced Quantum Metrology and Clock Precision under Thermodynamic Uncertainty
Key Laboratory of Intelligent Optoelectronic Devices and Chips of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, School of Physical Science and Technology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology（江苏高校智能光电器件与芯片重点实验室，苏州科技大学物理科学与技术学院）；Advanced Technology Research Institute of Taihu Photon Center, School of Physical Science and Technology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology（太湖光子中心先进技术研究院，苏州科技大学物理科学与技术学院）；Department of Physics, Zhejiang Normal University（浙江师范大学物理系）
The thermodynamic uncertainty relations (TURs), originally discovered for classical systems, dictate the trade-off between dissipation and fluctuations of irreversible current, specifying a minimal bound that constrains the two quantities. In a series of effort to extend the relation to the one under more generalized conditions, it has been noticed that the bound is less tight in open quantum processes. To study the origin of the loose bounds, we consider an external field-driven transition dynamics of two-level quantum system weakly coupled to the bosonic bath as a model of open quantum syste…
We derive a universal thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) that applies to an arbitrary observable in a general Markovian system. The generality of our result allows us to make two findings: (1) for an arbitrary out-of-equilibrium system, both the entropy production and the \textit{degree of non-stationarity} are required to tightly bound the strength of a thermodynamic current; (2) by removing the antisymmetric constraint on observables, the TUR in physics and a fundamental inequality in theoretical finance can be unified in a single framework.
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) is expected to hold in nanoscale electronic conductors, when the electron transport process is quantum coherent and the transmission probability is constant (energy and voltage independent). We present measurements of the electron current and its noise in gold atomic-scale junctions and confirm the validity of the TUR for electron transport in realistic quantum coherent conductors. Furthermore, we show that it is beneficial to present the current and its noise as a TUR ratio in order to identify deviations from noninteracting-electron coherent dynam…
We consider a Brownian particle in harmonic confinement of stiffness $k$, in one dimension in the underdamped regime. The whole setup is immersed in a heat bath at temperature $T$. The center of harmonic trap is dragged under any arbitrary protocol. The thermodynamic uncertainty relations for both position of the particle and current at time $t$ are obtained using the second law of thermodynamics as well as the positive semi-definite property of the correlation matrix of work and degrees of freedom of the system for both underdamped and overdamped cases.
Recently, some general relations have been studied in nonequilibrium mesoscopic systems. In particular, the thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) provides a universal internal relation among the cumulants of currents and the entropy production. In this paper, we give a simple derivation of TUR for thermally fluctuating particle current in a tilted periodic potential from a coarse grained point of view with the use of the transition probabilities. Also, we explore the condition for the bound of TUR to monotonically increase with the affinity.
Thermodynamic uncertainty relations quantifying a trade-off between current fluctuation and entropy production have been found in various stochastic systems. Herein, we study the thermodynamic uncertainty relations for Langevin systems driven by an external control protocol. Using information-theoretic techniques, we derive the uncertainty relations for arbitrary observables satisfying a scaling condition in both overdamped and underdamped regimes. We prove that the observable fluctuation is constrained by both entropy production and a kinetic term. The derived bounds are applicable to both cu…
A universal large $\mathcal{N}$ theory of nonequilibrium fluctuations emerges in the limit of fast jump rates and large occupancies. We use this theory to derive a set of coarse grained thermodynamic uncertainty relations (TUR) -- one of them being an activity bound. Importantly, the activity serves as a tighter bound for the entropy production in 1D systems. These results are particularly useful in the many-body regime, where typically a coarse grained approach is required to handle the large microscopic state space.
We extend a class of recently derived thermodynamic uncertainty relations to vector-valued observables. In contrast to the scalar-valued observables examined previously, this multidimensional thermodynamic uncertainty relation provides a natural way to study currents in high-dimensional systems and to obtain relations between different observables. Our proof is based on the generalized Cr{á}mer-Rao inequality, which we interpret as a relation between physical observables and the Fisher information. This allows us to develop high-dimensional versions of both the original, steady state uncertain…
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation sets the minimal bound of the cost-precision trade-off relation for dissipative processes. Examining the dynamics of an internally coupled system that is driven by a constant thermodynamic force, we however find that the trade-off relation of a sub-system is not constrained by the minimal bound of conventional uncertainty relation. We made our point explicit by using an exactly solvable model of interacting oscillators. As the number (N) of interacting oscillators increases, the uncertainty bound of individual oscillators is reduced to 2k_B T/N upon full …
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) provides a universal entropic bound for the precision of the fluctuation of the charge transfer for example for a class of continuous time stochastic processes. However, its extension to general nonequilibrium dynamics is still an unsolved problem. In this Letter, we show TUR for an arbitrary finite time in terms of exchange fluctuation theorem applied to ensemble of copies of the original system by assuming a physical regularity condition for the probability distribution. As a nontrivial practical consequence, we obtain universal scaling relations …
Thermodynamic uncertainty relations quantify how the signal-to-noise ratio of a given observable is constrained by dissipation. Fluctuation relations generalize the second law of thermodynamics to stochastic processes. We show that any fluctuation relation directly implies a thermodynamic uncertainty relation, considerably increasing their range of applicability. In particular, we extend thermodynamic uncertainty relations to scenarios which include measurement and feedback. Since feedback generally breaks time-reversal invariance, the uncertainty relations involve quantities averaged over the…
We generalize thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) and thermodynamic speed limit (TSL) for deterministic chemical reaction networks (CRNs). The scaled diffusion coefficient derived by considering the connection between macroscopic CRNs and mesoscopic CRNs plays an essential role in our results. The TUR shows that the product of the entropy production rate and the ratio of the scaled diffusion coefficient to the square of the rate of concentration change is bounded below by 2. The TSL states a trade-off relation between speed and thermodynamic quantities, the entropy production and the time…
Many versions of Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relations (TUR) have recently been discovered, which impose lower bounds on relative fluctuations of integrated currents in irreversible dissipative processes, and suggest that there may be fundamental limitations on the precision of small scale machines and heat engines. In this work we rigorously demonstrate that TUR can be evaded by using dynamic protocols that are asymmetric under time-reversal. We illustrate our results using a model heat engine using two-level systems, and also discuss heuristically the fundamental connections between TUR and ti…
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) has been well studied for systems with few degrees of freedom. While, in principle, the TUR holds for more complex systems with many interacting degrees of freedom as well, little is known so far about its behavior in such systems. We analyze the TUR in the thermodynamic limit for mixtures of driven particles with short-range interactions. Our main result is an explicit expression for the optimal estimate of the total entropy production in terms of single-particle currents and correlations between two-particle currents. Quantitative results for vari…
The problem of time is a notable obstacle towards the recognition of quantum theory as the ultimate fundamental description of nature. Quantum theory may not be complete if founded upon classical notions. Louis de Broglie, seeming to be more or less convinced about the ontology of his proposed matter waves, tried to develop a theory of sub-quantum degrees of freedom relying on statistical thermodynamics. He realized a quantum particle as a fluctuating dense corpuscle formed via non-linear effects from a sub-quantum medium. A wave on the medium guides the vibrating corpuscle. He argued that an …
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation originally proven for systems driven into a non-equilibrium steady state (NESS) allows one to infer the total entropy production rate by observing any current in the system. This kind of inference scheme is especially useful when the system contains hidden degrees of freedom or hidden discrete states, which are not accessible to the experimentalist. A recent generalization of the thermodynamic uncertainty relation to arbitrary time-dependent driving allows one to infer entropy production not only by measuring current-observables but also by observing stat…
Thermodynamic uncertainty relations yield a lower bound on entropy production in terms of the mean and fluctuations of a current. We derive their general form for systems under arbitrary time-dependent driving from arbitrary initial states and extend these relations beyond currents to state variables. The quality of the bound is discussed for various types of observables for an interacting pair of colloidal particles in a moving laser trap and for the dynamical unfolding of a small protein. Since the input for evaluating these bounds does not require specific knowledge of the system or its cou…
The total entropy production quantifies the extent of irreversibility in thermodynamic systems, which is nonnegative for any feasible dynamics. When additional information such as the initial and final states or moments of an observable is available, it is known that tighter lower bounds on the entropy production exist according to the classical speed limits and the thermodynamic uncertainty relations. Here, we obtain a universal lower bound on the total entropy production in terms of probability distributions of an observable in the time forward and backward processes. For a particular case, …
