Entering the deep QuAntum Regimes of NOnequilibrium Thermodynamics

Objetivo

Can we extend nonequilibrium thermodynamics to probe complex quantum phenomena?

In the 90s, the scope of thermodynamics broadened to include small systems and far-fromequilibrium transformations. Building on these advances, the emerging field of quantum thermodynamics has recently lead to breakthroughs formulating nonequilibrium thermodynamics in the quantum regime. Motivations range from the search of quantum advantages in heat engines or quantum batteries, to the expression of global constraints on many-body quantum dynamics stemming from the Second Law. However, deep quantum regimes where largest deviations from classical thermodynamics are expected remain elusive, limiting applications: At weak system-reservoir coupling, a finer description of the coherent-dissipative regime is lacking to evaluate the resource costs of quantum control, optimize quantum heat engines or understand the energy transfers during a quantum measurement. This in turn hinders experimental developments of quantum thermodynamics in more platforms. To express fundamental nonequilibrium bounds on the energy exchanges with quantum materials and use thermodynamics to probe many-body dynamics, new coarse-grained description are crucially needed.

Project QARNOT will address those timely issues owing to a novel strategy combining cutting-edge methods from quantum open system theory beyond the most common approximations with newly-derived universal thermodynamic descriptions of quantum systems, to bridge the gap between quantum thermodynamic laws and experimentally or theoretically accessible physical variables.

By unlocking the deep quantum regimes of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, QARNOT will provide a new versatile analytical toolbox to probe quantum many-body and dissipative dynamics. Notably, QARNOTs advances will be employed to solve the important bottleneck of the thermodynamic description of realistic quantum measurement, and enable a broad experimental use of thermodynamic concepts.