Resource-resolved quantum fluctuation theorems in end-point measurement scheme
AI Breakdown
Get a structured breakdown of this paper — what it's about, the core idea, and key takeaways for the field.
Abstract
Fluctuation theorems provide universal constraints on nonequilibrium energy and entropy fluctuations, making them a natural framework to assess how and to what extent quantum resources become thermodynamically relevant. We develop a unified framework for incorporating a generic quantum resource, including athermality, quantum coherence, and entanglement, into fluctuation theorems. We work within the end point measurement scheme, which avoids an initial energy measurement and allows quantum resources in the initial state to affect nonequilibrium energy statistics. We derive a family of quantum fluctuation theorems, including generalized Jarzynski equalities and Crooks type fluctuation relations, in which corrections decompose into resource resolved contributions. For single systems, we introduce the concept of weight of athermality, and combine it with the weight of coherence to isolate distinct thermodynamic effects of these quantum resources. For bipartite systems, we furthermore obtain two families of entanglement-resolved fluctuation theorems using an appended correlation operator and the best separable approximation, respectively. Finally, we introduce the concepts of coherence and entanglement fluctuation distances, as Kullback Leibler divergences, which quantify the thermodynamic relevance of quantum resources in a process-dependent and operational manner.