Quantum thermodynamics: Thermodynamics at the nanoscale

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Abstract

Abstract A short introduction on quantum thermodynamics is given and three new topics are discussed. (1) Maximal work extraction from a finite quantum system. The thermodynamic prediction fails and a new, general result is derived, the ‘ergotropy’. (2) In work extraction from two-temperature set-ups, the presence of correlations can push the effective efficiency beyond the Carnot bound. (3) In the presence of level crossing, non-slow changes may be more optimal than slow ones.