(Back to
the menu - click here.)
“Thermodynamics and
Information at the nanoscale”
|
Date: |
Download-files: |
Time: |
|
Thursday, 25. Oct. 2018 |
Video-Recording for any system with MP4-support
- Video.mp4 (ca.347 Mb) |
15:15 – 16:15 |
Janet Anders
(Exeter University)
Abstract :
This talk will
cover recent advances in the field of Quantum Thermodynamics,
an emerging field
that aims to uncover the thermodynamic laws at the nanoscale [1].
I will begin with
explaining a (classical) nanoscale thermodynamic experiment with
optically trapped
nanospheres that undergo Brownian motion in air [2].
These spheres
experience a non-equilibrium situation due to heating from the
trapping laser.
By using a suitable two-bath model to analyse the data, one can infer
the surface
temperature of the trapped spheres and also observe temperature
gradients across
the nanospheres. I will then move on to theoretical results concerning
thermodynamic
work in the quantum regime, i.e. can a different amount of work be
extracted from a
quantum system than from a classical system? To solve this we set up
a quantum
thermodynamic process that removes quantum information in analogy to
Landauer’s
erasure of classical information. The thermodynamic analysis of such a
process uncovers
that work can be extracted from quantum coherences in addition to
the work that can
be extracted from classical non-equilibrium states [3]. Finally,I will
report on a
thermodynamic uncertainty relation that limits the accuracy of measuring
the temperature
and energy of a thermal quantum system [4]. Corrections to the standard
uncertainty relation
arise here because, unlike in standard thermodynamics, a small
system’s
interaction with its environment is not negligible. The emerging relation
unites
thermodynamic and
quantum uncertainties for the first time.