In summary, this action has contributed to the creation of new general tools that allow to analyse quantum thermodynamics protocols independently of the specific setup and yet able to include relevant practical constraints. It contributed to the development of a common language within a previously fragmented community, by
1. publications bridging the gap between disparate subfields [1,2] and
2. writing comprehensive reviews for the broad community [3,4].
These works, also thanks to the useful feedback of several members of the community, have contributed to the creation of a common ground in the field of quantum thermodynamics. These considerations also led to a general framework to understand the role of memory as a thermodynamic resource [2].
The action also put forward new experimental proposals for the technologically relevant problem of cooling [1,5] by devising new optimal heat-bath algorithmic cooling schemes. This is a class of cooling protocols that have been investigated for many years, and our twist has been to show that control over the interaction with the environment leads to strong improvements over the best known schemes. We also advanced the understanding of experimentally relevant thermodynamic constraints by investigating quantum thermodynamics and specifically cooling in Gaussian quantum systems, one of the most readily available and widespread quantum physics platforms.
Furthermore, we clarified the role of quantum effects in thermodynamics [2,6,8] by exploring limitations and opportunities of exploiting two resources in a thermodynamic setting: superposition and entanglement. We also presented a new framework to understand quantum heat and work fluctuations [7] and provided tools to certify quantum signatures in thermal machines against classical emulations [9]. The latter is a necessary milestone towards proving the conjectured superiority of thermal machines over their classical counterpart.
In the attempt to solve thermodynamic problems, this action sparked to advances in various other areas. In particular we clarified a long-standing debate on the status of a class of quantum measurements known as weak measurements [10]; we identified a quantum advantage in an important primitive known as “cloning” [11] and we identified new quantum advantages in the simulation of classical processes [2].
2.1 Dissemination
All these results were disseminated in seminar and talks in prestigious physics departments all over the world. I presented the results of this action in Bilbao (conference Quantum Speed Limits and Thermodynamics 2019), ICTQ (University of Gdansk), QuTech (Fault-tolerant Quantum Computing group, TU Delft), CWI (Amsterdam), USI (Cryptography and Quantum information group, Lugano), University of Milan (12th Italian Quantum Information Conference), GIQ group (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona), Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems (University of Sydney), Istituto Nazionale Ricerca Metrologica (Turin), Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (Vienna), Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (Quantum Thermodynamics conference, University of California, Santa Barbara), Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. The results appeared in top level journals, including Physical Review Letters (2), Quantum (2), Rep. Prog. Phys., PRR, PRA, with more under review.
