发表机构
Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University; School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin; Fakultät für Mathematik, Universität Wien; Department of Physics, University of Helsinki; HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics; Algorithmiq Ltd; Mathematical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences; Center for Quantum Engineering, Research, and Education, TCG CREST; QICI Quantum Information and Computation Initiative, School of Computing and Data Science, The University of Hong Kong; Quantum Group, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford; Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（赫瑞-瓦特大学工程与物理科学学院光子与量子科学研究所; 都柏林三一学院物理学院; 维也纳大学数学学院; 赫尔辛基大学物理系; 匈牙利科学院维格纳物理研究中心; Algorithmiq有限公司; 斯洛伐克科学院数学研究所; TCG CREST量子工程、研究与教育中心; 香港大学计算与数据科学学院QICI量子信息与计算倡议; 牛津大学计算机科学系量子组; 理论物理前沿研究所）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
本研究将热力学平衡概念推广到高阶量子变换，证明完全平衡保持蕴含因果序，揭示平衡与因果结构的深层联系，并引入量子通道的类自由能量。
AI 中文摘要
量子热力学传统上被表述为关于平衡态和态变换的理论。高阶量子变换的最新进展描述了超越态和通道的物理场景，并为因果序提供了系统框架，这引发了如何在这种更一般的设定中定义和保持平衡的问题。从吉布斯态作为唯一平衡态出发，我们将平衡保持确定为其自然的高阶扩展。我们表明，虽然这一原则通常可以产生不同类别的变换，但当平衡保持被要求为完全时，即在意外的辅助扩展下，所有这些区别都会消失。值得注意的是，满足这一条件的每个变换都是因果有序的，使得因果序成为热力学平衡的涌现结果。我们为任意高阶映射建立了这一结果，并利用所得框架为量子通道引入类自由能量。我们的发现揭示了热力学平衡与因果结构之间的基本联系，为全面发展高阶量子热力学理论奠定了基础。
英文摘要
Quantum thermodynamics is traditionally formulated as a theory of equilibrium states and state transformations. Recent advances in higher-order quantum transformations, which describe physical scenarios beyond states and channels and provide a systematic framework for causal order, raise the question of how equilibrium should be defined and preserved in this more general setting. Starting from the Gibbs state as the unique equilibrium state, we identify equilibrium preservation as its natural higher-order extension. We show that, while this principle can in general give rise to distinct classes of transformations, all such distinctions disappear when equilibrium preservation is required completely, namely under arbitrary ancillary extensions. Remarkably, every transformation satisfying this condition is causally ordered, making causal order an emergent consequence of thermodynamic equilibrium. We establish this result for arbitrary higher-order maps and use the resulting framework to introduce free-energy-like quantities for quantum channels. Our findings reveal a fundamental connection between thermodynamic equilibrium and causal structure, providing a foundation for a fully fledged theory of higher-order quantum thermodynamics.
Comments47 pages, 15 figures
