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Entropy Production in Open Systems: The Predominant Role of Intraenvironment Correlations

Krzysztof Ptaszyński and Massimiliano Esposito
Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 200603 – Published 13 November 2019
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Abstract

We show that the entropy production in small open systems coupled to environments made of extended baths is predominantly caused by the displacement of the environment from equilibrium rather than, as often assumed, the mutual information between the system and the environment. The latter contribution is strongly bounded from above by the Araki-Lieb inequality and therefore is not time extensive, in contrast to the entropy production itself. We confirm our results with exact numerical calculations of the system-environment dynamics.

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  • Received 13 May 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.200603

© 2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Statistical Physics & Thermodynamics

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Equilibration in Quantum Systems

Published 13 November 2019

Two research groups show that specific contributions to entropy may be the key to understanding how and when quantum systems equilibrate.

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Authors & Affiliations

Krzysztof Ptaszyński1,* and Massimiliano Esposito2

  • 1Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Mariana Smoluchowskiego 17, 60-179 Poznań, Poland
  • 2Complex Systems and Statistical Mechanics, Physics and Materials Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg, Luxembourg

  • *krzysztof.ptaszynski@ifmpan.poznan.pl

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Issue

Vol. 123, Iss. 20 — 15 November 2019

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