Quantum Stochastic Thermodynamics: Foundations and Selected Applications
My book "Quantum Stochastic Thermodynamics: Foundations and Selected Applications" is
about classical stochastic thermodynamics, quantum thermodynamics and
their synthesis. It is published by Oxford
University Press and a draft of Chapter 1 and the Appendix can be downloaded here for free.
As the title suggests, the book focuses mostly on foundational
questions and there is no need to read it if you can answer the
following questions:
- How do you define a quantum stochastic process? What is a quantum Markov process?
- Is Landauer's principle a tautology?
- What does the condition of local detailed balance say? And where does it come from?
- Does the 0th law hold for small systems?
- How do you define thermodynamic entropy out of equilibrium?
- Can you reach Carnot efficiency at finite power?
- Is the 3rd law of any use? And if so, also for open quantum systems?
- Is there a unique way to extend classical stochastic thermodynamics to the quantum regime?
- Which 2nd law does Maxwell's demon obey? Does it matter if it uses quantum-correlated interventions?
- Does the presence of a magnetic field violate time-reversal symmetry?
- ...
To illustrate the general theory, the book also treats a few applications and experiments in detail. Those are single-molecule-pulling experiments, the micromaser and related settings in quantum optics, as well as quantum transport and thermoelectric devices based on quantum dots.
