Nature Communications (Jul 2016)

Thermodynamics of quantum systems with multiple conserved quantities

  • Yelena Guryanova,
  • Sandu Popescu,
  • Anthony J. Short,
  • Ralph Silva,
  • Paul Skrzypczyk

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12049
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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The second law of thermodynamics constrains how much of a conserved quantity, such as energy, can be extracted from a system in the form of work. Here, the authors generalize this law to quantum systems whose conserved quantities need not commute, showing that it is their combination to be constrained.