Abstract:

In this series of lectures I will give an introduction to the growing field of Quantum Thermodynamics. I will first explain why Gibbs or thermal states play a central role in the theory, and present a derivation of the second law of thermodynamics starting from minimal assumptions on the underlying quantum dynamics. I will then discuss several applications such as Landauer’s erasure, quantum battery charging, and quantum heat engines. Next, I will move beyond average laws and present several recent results to describe thermodynamic fluctuations, including quantum fluctuation theorems and quantum fluctuation-dissipation relation for work. Finally, I will discuss physical implementations of these theoretical ideas in solid state devices. If time allows, I will also introduce the basics of quantum thermometry.

About the speaker

Biography:

Martí Perarnau-Llobet is a researcher at GAP, University of Geneva, since May 2020. Previously, he was postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching (2016-2020) in the Theory group of Ignacio Cirac, and did the Phd in ICFO (2012-2016) in Acín’s group. His research activity mainly focuses on quantum thermodynamics (optimisation of finite-time protocols, quantum signatures in thermodynamics, thermometry, connections with many-body physics), but he also works on some aspects of quantum information and optics (e.g. quantum metrology and superradiance).