Weekly seminars

Microscopic features of quantum transport and entropy production

par Michele Mintchev (Pisa,INFN and Dipartimento di Fisica)

Europe/Paris
Description

We investigate the universal microscopic features of quantum
transport in a non-equilibrium steady state, which breaks time reversal
invariance spontaneously. The analysis is based on the probability
distribution, generated by the correlation functions of the entropy
production operator. The general approach is applied to exactly solvable
models, where all quantum fluctuations of the entropy production are
explicitly evaluated in the zero frequency limit. It is shown that all
moments of the entropy production distribution are non-negative, which
provides a microscopic version of the second law of thermodynamics. The
impact of quantum statistics in this context, as well as some
applications of the results will be also discussed.