Fundamental Limitation on Cooling under Classical Noise

Abstract

Abstract We prove a general theorem that the action of arbitrary classical noise or random unitary channels can not increase the maximum population of any eigenstate of an open quantum system, assuming initial system-environment factorization. Such factorization is the conventional starting point for descriptions of open system dynamics. In particular, our theorem implies that a system can not be ideally cooled down unless it is initially prepared as a pure state. The resultant inequality rigorously constrains the possibility of cooling the system solely through temporal manipulation, i.e., dynamical control over the system Hamiltonian without resorting to measurement based cooling methods. It is a substantial generalization of the no-go theorem claiming that the exact ground state cooling is forbidden given initial system-thermal bath factorization, while here we prove even cooling is impossible under classical noise.