Subsections
[Cr:4, Lc:3, Tt:1, Lb:0]
Knowledge of the content of PHY202, PHY302 and PHY304 is
essential to follow this course.
- Review of Thermodynamics: laws of thermodynamics, thermodynamic potentials, work extraction
processes, entropy and information, Maxwell's demon, Landauer principle.
- Review of quantum mechanics: density matrix formalism, composite quantum systems, reduced
density matrix, entanglement, purity, quantum entropy, relative entropy, quantum measurements.
- Quantum thermodynamic machines: heat cycles, quantum thermodynamic processes, quantum
adiabatic theorem, thermal efficiency, effect of interacting working medium, quantum friction,
quantum Maxwell's demon.
- Time evolution. Liouville-von Neumann equation, Heisenberg and interaction picture, Markovian
quantum master equation, Lindblad operators, weak coupling limit, relaxation to equilibrium, decay
of two-level system, coherence enhanced efficiency of quantum heat engine.
- J. Gemmer, M. Michel, G. Mahler, Quantum Thermodynamics: Emergence of Thermodynamic Behavior Within Composite Quantum Systems, Lecture Notes in Physics, Springer (2009).
- G. Mahler, Quantum Thermodynamic Processes: Energy and Information Flow at the Nanoscale, Pan Stanford (2014).
- H. P. Breuer and F. Petruccine, Theory of Open Quantum Systems, Clarendon Press, Oxford (2002).