The extraction of work from quantum coherence
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Accepted version
Published version
Author(s)
Korzekwa, K
Lostaglio, M
Jennings, D
Oppenheim, J
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The interplay between quantum-mechanical properties, such as coherence,
and classical notions, such as energy, is a subtle topic at the forefront of quantum
thermodynamics. The traditional Carnot argument limits the conversion of heat to
work; here we critically assess the problem of converting coherence to work. Through a
careful account of all resources involved in the thermodynamic transformations within
a fully quantum-mechanical treatment, we show that there exist thermal machines
extracting work from coherence arbitrarily well. Such machines only need to act on
individual copies of a state and can be reused. On the other hand, we show that
for any thermal machine with finite resources not all the coherence of a state can be
extracted as work. However, even bounded thermal machines can be reused infinitely
many times in the process of work extraction from coherence.
and classical notions, such as energy, is a subtle topic at the forefront of quantum
thermodynamics. The traditional Carnot argument limits the conversion of heat to
work; here we critically assess the problem of converting coherence to work. Through a
careful account of all resources involved in the thermodynamic transformations within
a fully quantum-mechanical treatment, we show that there exist thermal machines
extracting work from coherence arbitrarily well. Such machines only need to act on
individual copies of a state and can be reused. On the other hand, we show that
for any thermal machine with finite resources not all the coherence of a state can be
extracted as work. However, even bounded thermal machines can be reused infinitely
many times in the process of work extraction from coherence.
Date Issued
2016-02-18
Date Acceptance
2015-12-18
Citation
New Journal of Physics, 2016, 18
ISSN
1367-2630
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Journal / Book Title
New Journal of Physics
Volume
18
Copyright Statement
© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. Original content from this
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Subjects
Fluids & Plasmas
02 Physical Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
023045