Scattering approach to the thermodynamics of quantum transport

Abstract

The thermodynamic entropy production for the scattering processes of noninteracting bosons and fermions in mesoscopic systems is shown to be related to the difference between the Connes–Narnhofer–Thirring entropy per unit time, characterizing temporal disorder in the motion of quantum particles, and the associated time-reversed coentropy per unit time. Under nonequilibrium conditions, the positivity of thermodynamic entropy production can thus be interpreted as a time-reversal symmetry breaking in the temporal disorder of the quantum transport process. Moreover, the full counting statistics of both fermionic and bosonic quantum transport is formulated in relation with the energy and particle currents producing thermodynamic entropy in nonequilibrium steady states.

Keywords

• nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics
• quantum transport processes
• fluctuation phenomena