In these decades, it has been revealed that there is rich information-theoretic structure in thermodynamics of out-of-equilibrium systems in both the classical and quantum regimes. This has led to the fruitful interplay among statistical physics, quantum information theory, and mathematical theories including matrix analysis and asymptotic probability theory. The main purpose of this book is to clarify how information theory works behind thermodynamics and to shed modern light on it. We focus on both of purely information-theoretic concepts and their physical implications: We present self-contained and rigorous proofs of several fundamental properties of entropies, divergences, and majorization. We also discuss the modern formulations of thermodynamics, especially from the perspectives of stochastic thermodynamics and resource theory of thermodynamics. Resource theory is a recently-developed field as a branch of quantum information theory in order to quantify (energetically or information-theoretically) "useful resources." We show that resource theory has an intrinsic connection to various fundamental ideas of mathematics and information theory. This book is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the field, but would serve as a concise introduction to several important ingredients of the information-theoretic formulation of thermodynamics.
What does it mean for one quantum process to be more disordered than another? Here we provide a precise answer to this question in terms of a quantum-mechanical generalization of majorization. The framework admits a complete description in terms of single-shot entropies, and provides a range of significant applications. These include applications to the comparison of quantum statistical models and quantum channels, to the resource theory of asymmetry, and to quantum thermodynamics. In particular, within quantum thermodynamics, we apply our results to provide the first complete set of of necess…
Passive states, i.e., those states from which no work can be extracted via unitary operations, play an important role in the foundations and applications of quantum thermodynamics. They generalize the familiar Gibbs thermal states, which are the sole passive states being stable under tensor product. Here, we introduce a partial order on the set of passive states that captures the idea of a passive state being virtually cooler than another one. This partial order, which we build by defining the notion of relative passivity, offers a fine-grained comparison between passive states based on virtua…
In this note we lay some groundwork for the resource theory of thermodynamics in general probabilistic theories (GPTs). We consider theories satisfying a purely convex abstraction of the spectral decomposition of density matrices: that every state has a decomposition, with unique probabilities, into perfectly distinguishable pure states. The spectral entropy, and analogues using other Schur-concave functions, can be defined as the entropy of these probabilities. We describe additional conditions under which the outcome probabilities of a fine-grained measurement are majorized by those for a sp…
Matrix Majorization in Large Samples with Varying Support Restrictions
National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学）；Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学量子技术中心）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学电气与计算机工程系）
We introduce a class of quantum channels called passive-environment bosonic channels. These channels are relevant from a quantum thermodynamical viewpoint because they correspond to the energy-preserving linear coupling of a bosonic system with a bosonic environment that is in a passive state (no energy can be extracted from it by using a unitary transformation) followed by discarding the environment. The Fock-majorization relation defined in [New J. Phys. 18, 073047 (2016)] happens to be especially useful in this context as, unlike regular majorization, it connects the disorder of a state tog…
Multiregional input-output (MRIO) tables, in conjunction with Leontief analysis, are widely-used to assess the geographical distribution of carbon emissions and the economic activities that cause them. Majorization, a tool originating in economics that has found utility in statistical mechanics, can provide insight into how Leontief analysis links disparities in emissions with global income inequality. We examine Leontief analysis as a model, drawing out similarities with modern nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Paralleling the physical concept of thermo-majorization, we define the concept…
We introduce a binary relation on the finite discrete probability distributions which generalizes notions of majorization that have been studied in quantum information theory. Motivated by questions in thermodynamics, our relation describes the transitions induced by bistochastic maps in the presence of additional auxiliary systems which may become correlated in the process. We show that this relation is completely characterized by Shannon entropy H, which yields an interpretation of H in resource-theoretic terms, and admits a particularly simple proof of a known characterization of H in terms…
It is shown that phase-insensitive Gaussian bosonic channels are majorization-preserving over the set of passive states of the harmonic oscillator. This means that comparable passive states under majorization are transformed into equally comparable passive states. The proof relies on a new preorder relation called Fock-majorization, which coincides with regular majorization for passive states but also induces a mean photon number order, thereby connecting the concepts of energy and disorder of a quantum state. As an application, the consequences of majorization preservation are investigated in…
Motivated by reachability questions in coherently controlled open quantum systems coupled to a thermal bath, as well as recent progress in the field of thermo-/vector-majorization we generalize classical majorization from unital quantum channels to channels with an arbitrary fixed point $D$ of full rank. Such channels preserve some Gibbs-state and thus play an important role in the resource theory of quantum thermodynamics, in particular in thermo-majorization. Based on this we investigate $D$-majorization on matrices in terms of its topological and order properties, such as existence of uniqu…
We address the problem of finding the optimal common resource for an arbitrary family of target states in quantum resource theories based on majorization, that is, theories whose conversion law between resources is determined by a majorization relationship, such as it happens with entanglement, coherence or purity. We provide a conclusive answer to this problem by appealing to the completeness property of the majorization lattice. We give a proof of this property that relies heavily on the more geometric construction provided by the Lorenz curves, which allows to explicitly obtain the correspo…
Adopting a resource theory framework of thermodynamics for quantum and nano systems pioneered by Janzing et al. [Int. J. Th. Phys. 39, 2717 (2000)], we formulate the cost in useful work of transforming one resource state into another as a linear program of convex optimization. This approach is based on the characterization of thermal quasiorder given by Janzing et al. and later by Horodecki and Oppenheim [Nat. Comm. 4, 2059 (2013)]. Both characterizations are related to an extended version of majorization studied by Ruch, Schranner, and Seligman under the name mixing distance [J. Chem. Phys. 6…
The theory of majorization and its variants, including thermomajorization, have been found to play a central role in the formulation of many physical resource theories, ranging from entanglement theory to quantum thermodynamics. Here we formulate the framework of quantum relative Lorenz curves, and show how it is able to unify majorization, thermomajorization, and their noncommutative analogues. In doing so, we define the family of Hilbert $α$-divergences and show how it relates with other divergences used in quantum information theory. We then apply these tools to the problem of deciding the …
Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, University of Maryland and NIST（马里兰大学与NIST联合量子信息与计算中心）；Department of Physics, University of Maryland（马里兰大学物理系）；QAT team, DIENS, École Normale Supérieure, PSL University, CNRS, INRIA（巴黎高等师范学院、PSL大学、CNRS、INRIA量子算法团队）；Department of Basic Science, The University of Tokyo（东京大学基础科学系）；Duke Quantum Center and Departments of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University（杜克大学杜克量子中心及物理与电气计算机工程系）
The Bures geometry of quantum statistical thermodynamics at thermal equilibrium is investigated by introducing the connections between the Bures angle and the Renyi $1/2$-divergence. Fundamental relations concerning free energy, moments of work and distance are established.
The first law of thermodynamics imposes not just a constraint on the energy-content of systems in extreme quantum regimes, but also symmetry-constraints related to the thermodynamic processing of quantum coherence. We show that this thermodynamic symmetry decomposes any quantum state into mode operators that quantify the coherence present in the state. We then establish general upper and lower bounds for the evolution of quantum coherence under arbitrary thermal operations, valid for any temperature. We identify primitive coherence manipulations and show that the transfer of coherence between …
Thermodynamics teaches that if a system initially off-equilibrium is coupled to work sources, the maximum work that it may yield is governed by its energy and entropy. For finite systems this bound is usually not reachable. The maximum extractable work compatible with quantum mechanics (``ergotropy'') is derived and expressed in terms of the density matrix and the Hamiltonian. It is related to the property of majorization: more major states can provide more work. Scenarios of work extraction that contrast the thermodynamic intuition are discussed, e.g. a state with larger entropy than another …
Thermodynamics has recently been extended to small scales with resource theories that model heat exchanges. Real physical systems exchange diverse quantities: heat, particles, angular momentum, etc. We generalize thermodynamic resource theories to exchanges of observables other than heat, to baths other than heat baths, and to free energies other than the Helmholtz free energy. These generalizations are illustrated with "grand-potential" theories that model movements of heat and particles. Free operations include unitaries that conserve energy and particle number. From this conservation law an…
We prove a generalization of the classic Groenewold-Lindblad entropy inequality, combining decoherence and the quantum Bayes theorem into a simple unified picture where decoherence increases entropy while observation decreases it. This provides a rigorous quantum-mechanical version of the second law of thermodynamics, governing how the entropy of a system (the entropy of its density matrix, partial-traced over the environment and conditioned on what is known) evolves under general decoherence and observation. The powerful tool of spectral majorization enables both simple alternative proofs of …
For quantum spin systems in any spatial dimension with a local, translation-invariant Hamiltonian, we prove that asymptotic state convertibility from a quantum state to another one by a thermodynamically feasible class of quantum dynamics, called thermal operations, is completely characterized by the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence rate, if the state is translation-invariant and spatially ergodic. Our proof consists of two parts and is phrased in terms of a branch of the quantum information theory called the resource theory. First, we prove that any states, for which the min and max Rényi div…
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 tr…
We revisit the problem of work extraction from a system in contact with a heat bath to a work storage system, and the reverse problem of state formation from a thermal system state in single-shot quantum thermodynamics. A physically intuitive and mathematically simple approach using only elementary majorization theory and matrix analysis is developed, and a graphical interpretation of the maximum extractable work, minimum work cost of formation, and corresponding single-shot free energies is presented. This approach provides a bridge between two previous methods based respectively on the conce…
The thermodynamical properties of a quantized electromagnetic field inside a box with perfectly conducting walls are studied using a regularization scheme that permits to obtain finite expressions for the thermodynamic potentials. The source of ultraviolet divergences is directly isolated in the expression for the density of modes, and the logarithmic infrared divergences are regularized imposing the uniqueness of vacuum and, consequently, the vanishing of the entropy in the limit of zero temperature. We thus obtain corrections to the Casimir energy and pressures, and to the specific heat that…
Recently, it has been shown that for out-of-equilibrium systems, there are additional constraints on thermodynamical evolution besides the ordinary second law. These form a new family of second laws of thermodynamics, which are equivalent to the monotonicity of quantum Rényi divergences. In black hole thermodynamics, the usual second law is manifest as the area increase theorem. Hence one may ask if these additional laws imply new restrictions for gravitational dynamics, such as for out-of-equilibrium black holes? Inspired by this question, we study these constraints within the AdS/CFT corresp…
Quantum catalysis is a fascinating concept which demonstrates that certain transformations can only become possible when given access to a specific resource that has to be returned unaffected. It was first discovered in the context of entanglement theory and since then applied in a number of resource-theoretic frameworks, including quantum thermodynamics. Although in that case the necessary (and sometimes also sufficient) conditions on the existence of a catalyst are known, almost nothing is known about the precise form of the catalyst state required by the transformation. In particular, it is…
Thermodynamics and information theory have been intimately related since the times of Maxwell and Boltzmann. Recently it was shown that the dissipated work in an arbitrary non-equilibrium process is related to the Rényi divergences between two states along the forward and reversed dynamics. Here we show that the relation between dissipated work and Renyi divergences generalizes to $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric quantum mechanics with unbroken $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry. In the regime of broken $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, the relation between dissipated work and Renyi divergences does not hold as the norm …
Geometric foundations of thermodynamics in the quantum regime
Universidad de Granada（格拉纳达大学）；Instituto Carlos I de Física Teórica y Computacional, Universidad de Granada（格拉纳达大学卡洛斯一世理论与计算物理研究所）；Universidad de Córdoba（科尔多瓦大学）
We present an in-depth study of the non-equilibrium statistics of the irreversible work produced during sudden quenches in proximity to the structural linear-zigzag transition of ion Coulomb crystals in 1+1 dimensions. By employing both an analytical approach based on a harmonic expansion and numerical simulations, we show the divergence of the average irreversible work in proximity to the transition. We show that the non-analytic behaviour of the work fluctuations can be characterized in terms of the critical exponents of the quantum Ising chain. Due to the technological advancements in trapp…
We identify and explore the intriguing property of resource resonance arising within resource theories of entanglement, coherence and thermodynamics. While the theories considered are reversible asymptotically, the same is generally not true in realistic scenarios where the available resources are bounded. The finite-size effects responsible for this irreversibility could potentially prohibit small quantum information processors or thermal machines from achieving their full potential. Nevertheless, we show here that by carefully engineering the resource interconversion process any such losses …
The principle called information causality has been used to deduce Tsirelson's bound. In this paper we derive information causality from monotonicity of divergence and relate it to more basic principles related to measurements on thermodynamic systems. This principle is more fundamental in the sense that it can be formulated for both unipartite systems and multipartite systems while information causality is only defined for multipartite systems. Thermodynamic sufficiency is a strong condition that put severe restrictions to shape of the state space to an extend that we conjecture that under ve…
