Alexia AUFFEVES

Quantum Thermodynamics is an emerging and interdisciplinary field, that is currently building its own concepts with material taken from quantum information, quantum open systems, stochastic and information thermodynamics. It addresses a vast range of questions, whether fundamental or applied, e.g. What is the nature of time arrow at the quantum scale? How does it impact the efficiency of quantum engines? Are quantum coherence and entanglement new energetic resources? What is the energetic bill to run a quantum protocol?…In this colloquium I will provide an overview of the genesis, concepts and main motivations of this emerging field. I will focus on a recent proposal of Maxwell’s demon engine where work is not extracted from thermal fluctuations, but quantum fluctuations induced by quantum measurement only [1].This “measurement driven engine” has unlocked a new research line and offers a striking illustration of the thermodynamic footprint of measurement in the quantum regime, which acts as the ultimate source of randomness, irreversibility, and energy [2]. I will then switch to the autonomous version of this engine, where work is extracted from an engineered bath acting as a source of energy and coherence [3]. This last proposal sheds new light on how coherence impacts work extraction in the quantum regime. I will finally focus on the opposite side of quantum thermodynamics as a tool to assess the energetic cost of running quantum protocols against quantum noise [4].

References

[1] Elouard, Herrera-Marti, Huard, Auffèves, “Extracting work from quantum measurement in Maxwell’s demon engines”, PRL 118, 260603 (2017)
[2] Grangier and Auffèves, “What is quantum in quantum randomness”, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. A 376 :2017/0322 (2018)
[3] Monsel, Fellous-Asiani, Huard and Auffèves, “A coherent quantum engine based on bath and battery engineering”, arXiv: 1907.00812 (2019)
[4] Elouard, Herrera-Marti, Clusel, Auffèves, “The role of quantum measurement in stochastic thermodynamics”, npj QI 3: 9 (2017)