First law of quantum field thermodynamics

2020/08/31 by Adam Teixidó-Bonfill, Alvaro Ortega, Eduardo Martín-Martínez
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Classical mechanics #Field (mathematics) #Fluctuation theorem #Law #Mathematics #Non-equilibrium thermodynamics #Open quantum system #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum field theory #Quantum gravity #Quantum mechanics #Quantum thermodynamics #Second law of thermodynamics #Theoretical physics #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Thermal quantum field theory #Unitary state #gr-qc #hep-th #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.102.052219

published as Phys. Rev. A 102, 052219 (2020) · 11 pages, 5 appendices. RevTeX 4.1. (v2: edited to match published version)

arxiv created 2020/11/18 · openalex publication_date 2020/11/18 · arxiv updated 2020/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Standard definitions of work distributions in quantum thermodynamics cannot be applied to quantum field theory (QFT), due to the absence of a notion of Gibbs thermality as well as the incompatibility of projective measurements with the relativistic nature of QFT. In this paper, the authors show how to overcome this problem and formulate the first law of thermodynamics within QFT.

Citations

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