Thermodynamics of continuously measured quantum systems in Nature Quantum Information!

QTeQ’s recent research work has been published in the pages of the prestigious Nature Quantum Information (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-020-00334-6). In this work, the team composed by QTeQ members (Alessio Belenchia, Luca Mancino and Mauro Paternostro) and Gabriel Landi from the University of São Paolo explored the thermodynamics of quantum systems under continuous monitoring.

The work uses a phase-space description of the dynamics of open quantum system continuously monitored by quantum-limited detectors to infer the effect of the acquired information on the thermodynamics of the process. The final result is a refined second-law of thermodynamics expressed via the irreversible entropy production rate and directly connected to the information acquired via continuous monitoring. This theoretical framework has been used recently in an experimental investigation leading to the first experimental assessment of the irreversible entropy production for a quantum mesoscopic system (see the previous post).