Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry
The laws of thermodynamics are usually formulated under the assumption of infinitely large environments. While this idealization facilitates theoretical treatments, real physical systems are always finite and their interaction range is limited. These constraints have consequences for important tasks...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Verein zur Förderung des Open Access Publizierens in den Quantenwissenschaften
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Quantum |
| Online Access: | https://quantum-journal.org/papers/q-2021-09-21-547/pdf/ |
| _version_ | 1819063719875837952 |
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| author | Ivan Henao Raam Uzdin |
| author_facet | Ivan Henao Raam Uzdin |
| author_sort | Ivan Henao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The laws of thermodynamics are usually formulated under the assumption of infinitely large environments. While this idealization facilitates theoretical treatments, real physical systems are always finite and their interaction range is limited. These constraints have consequences for important tasks such as cooling, not directly captured by the second law of thermodynamics. Here, we study catalytic transformations that cannot be achieved when a system exclusively interacts with a finite environment. Our core result consists of constructive conditions for these transformations, which include the corresponding global unitary operation and the explicit states of all the systems involved. From this result we present various findings regarding the use of catalysts for cooling. First, we show that catalytic cooling is always possible if the dimension of the catalyst is sufficiently large. In particular, the cooling of a qubit using a hot qubit can be maximized with a catalyst as small as a three-level system. We also identify catalytic enhancements for tasks whose implementation is possible without a catalyst. For example, we find that in a multiqubit setup catalytic cooling based on a three-body interaction outperforms standard (non-catalytic) cooling using higher order interactions. Another advantage is illustrated in a thermometry scenario, where a qubit is employed to probe the temperature of the environment. In this case, we show that a catalyst allows to surpass the optimal temperature estimation attained only with the probe. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T15:19:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ac7de8a4d14f42e39d77aa4ac16f9022 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2521-327X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T15:19:09Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | Verein zur Förderung des Open Access Publizierens in den Quantenwissenschaften |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quantum |
| spelling | doaj.art-ac7de8a4d14f42e39d77aa4ac16f90222022-12-21T18:59:06ZengVerein zur Förderung des Open Access Publizierens in den QuantenwissenschaftenQuantum2521-327X2021-09-01554710.22331/q-2021-09-21-54710.22331/q-2021-09-21-547Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometryIvan HenaoRaam UzdinThe laws of thermodynamics are usually formulated under the assumption of infinitely large environments. While this idealization facilitates theoretical treatments, real physical systems are always finite and their interaction range is limited. These constraints have consequences for important tasks such as cooling, not directly captured by the second law of thermodynamics. Here, we study catalytic transformations that cannot be achieved when a system exclusively interacts with a finite environment. Our core result consists of constructive conditions for these transformations, which include the corresponding global unitary operation and the explicit states of all the systems involved. From this result we present various findings regarding the use of catalysts for cooling. First, we show that catalytic cooling is always possible if the dimension of the catalyst is sufficiently large. In particular, the cooling of a qubit using a hot qubit can be maximized with a catalyst as small as a three-level system. We also identify catalytic enhancements for tasks whose implementation is possible without a catalyst. For example, we find that in a multiqubit setup catalytic cooling based on a three-body interaction outperforms standard (non-catalytic) cooling using higher order interactions. Another advantage is illustrated in a thermometry scenario, where a qubit is employed to probe the temperature of the environment. In this case, we show that a catalyst allows to surpass the optimal temperature estimation attained only with the probe.https://quantum-journal.org/papers/q-2021-09-21-547/pdf/ |
| spellingShingle | Ivan Henao Raam Uzdin Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry Quantum |
| title | Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry |
| title_full | Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry |
| title_fullStr | Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry |
| title_full_unstemmed | Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry |
| title_short | Catalytic transformations with finite-size environments: applications to cooling and thermometry |
| title_sort | catalytic transformations with finite size environments applications to cooling and thermometry |
| url | https://quantum-journal.org/papers/q-2021-09-21-547/pdf/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ivanhenao catalytictransformationswithfinitesizeenvironmentsapplicationstocoolingandthermometry AT raamuzdin catalytictransformationswithfinitesizeenvironmentsapplicationstocoolingandthermometry |