Second law of thermodynamics with quantum memory

Li-Hang Ren and Heng Fan
Phys. Rev. A 96, 042304 – Published 6 October 2017

Abstract

We design a heat engine with multiheat reservoir, an ancillary system, and quantum memory. We then derive an inequality related to the second law of thermodynamics and give a limitation on the work gain from the engine by analyzing the entropy change and quantum mutual information change during the process. In addition, remarkably, by the combination of two independent engines and with the help of the entropic uncertainty relation with quantum memory, we find that the total maximum work gained from those two heat engines should be larger than a quantity related to the quantum entanglement between the ancillary state and the quantum memory. This result provides a lower bound for the maximum work extracted, in contrast to the upper bound in the conventional second law of thermodynamics. However, the validity of this inequality depends on whether the maximum work can achieve the upper bound.

  • Figure
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  • Received 30 January 2017
  • Revised 3 September 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.96.042304

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Statistical Physics & Thermodynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Li-Hang Ren1,2 and Heng Fan1,2,3,*

  • 1Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • 2School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • 3Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100190, China

  • *hfan@iphy.ac.cn

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Vol. 96, Iss. 4 — October 2017

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