Fundamental limitations for thermodynamics in microscopic regime
The relationship between thermodynamics and statistical physics is valid in the thermodynamic limit -- when the number of particles involved becomes very large. Here we study thermodynamics in the opposite regime -- at both the nano scale, and when quantum effects become important. Applying results from quantum information theory we construct a theory of thermodynamics in these extreme limits. We derive a criteria for thermodynamical state transitions, and find two free energies: one which determines the amount of work which can be extracted from a small system in contact with a heat bath, and the other which quantifies the reverse process. They imply that generically, there are additional constraints which govern spontaneous thermodynamical processes. We find that there are fundamental limitations on work extraction from nonequilibrium states, due to both finite size effects which are present at the nano scale, as well as quantum coherences. This implies that thermodynamical transitions are generically irreversible at this scale, and we quantify the degree to which this is so.
Host: Renato Renner
Please join us at 16:30h in room Y16G05 on the Irchel Campus of UNI Zurich. We meet at 16:00h in front of the lecture hall for coffee and cookies.
Best regards,
Renato Renner
Prasenjit Saha
PS: The full program of the Theory Colloquium is available on
http://www.itp.uzh.ch/seminars/theory.html