Landauer vs. Nernst: What is the True Cost of Cooling a Quantum System?

Research output: Working paperPreprintResearch

Documents

  • Philip Taranto
  • Faraj Bakhshinezhad
  • Bluhm, Andreas
  • Ralph Silva
  • Nicolai Friis
  • Maximilian P. E. Lock
  • Giuseppe Vitagliano
  • Felix C. Binder
  • Tiago Debarba
  • Emanuel Schwarzhans
  • Fabien Clivaz
  • Marcus Huber
Thermodynamics connects our knowledge of the world to our capability to manipulate and thus to control it. This crucial role of control is exemplified by the third law of thermodynamics, Nernst's unattainability principle, stating that infinite resources are required to cool a system to absolute zero temperature. But what are these resources? And how does this relate to Landauer's principle that famously connects information and thermodynamics? We answer these questions by providing a framework for identifying the resources that enable the creation of pure quantum states. We show that perfect cooling is possible with Landauer energy cost given infinite time or control complexity. Within the context of resource theories of quantum thermodynamics, we derive a Carnot-Landauer limit, along with protocols for its saturation. This generalises Landauer's principle to a fully thermodynamic setting, leading to a unification with the third law and emphasising the importance of control in quantum thermodynamics.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherarXiv.org
Number of pages53
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

11 pages, 2 figures, 39 pages of appendices

    Research areas

  • quant-ph

ID: 304512541