Journal
NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS
Volume 15, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/15/3/033022
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Funding
- Royal Society
- MIUR through FIRB-IDEAS [RBID08B3FM]
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We define thermodynamic configurations and identify two primitives of discrete quantum processes between configurations for which heat and work can be defined in a natural way. This allows us to uncover a general second law for any discrete trajectory that consists of a sequence of these primitives, linking both equilibrium and non-equilibrium configurations. Moreover, in the limit of a discrete trajectory that passes through an infinite number of configurations, i.e. in the reversible limit, we recover the saturation of the second law. Finally, we show that for a discrete Carnot cycle operating between four configurations one recovers Carnot's thermal efficiency.
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