Abstract
We show that the entropy production in small open systems coupled to environments made of extended baths is predominantly caused by the displacement of the environment from equilibrium rather than, as often assumed, the mutual information between the system and the environment. The latter contribution is strongly bounded from above by the Araki-Lieb inequality and therefore is not time extensive, in contrast to the entropy production itself. We confirm our results with exact numerical calculations of the system-environment dynamics.
- Received 13 May 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.200603
© 2019 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Viewpoint
Equilibration in Quantum Systems
Published 13 November 2019
Two research groups show that specific contributions to entropy may be the key to understanding how and when quantum systems equilibrate.
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