Thermodynamics and non-equilibrium dynamics of open quantum systems

与环境自由度接触的量子系统的热力学和非平衡动力学-被称为开放量子系统--是物理学和化学中最重要的主题。这个项目将开发新的理论技术来分析自治量子热机在系统和水库之间强耦合时的行为。这在纳米级热机和冰箱以及从热资源中产生量子关联方面都有实际应用。这项研究的关键目的是了解在这种情况下，强烈的储集层耦合是否有益，或者它是否通常以不利的方式起作用。另一个目标是在存在系统-储集层相关性的情况下定义基本量，如热和功。为了达到这些目标，学生将开发新的数值技术来描述量子系统的非平衡动力学。它们基于将一个与周围环境强耦合的量子系统映射到一个扩展到包括主要环境影响，但随后又弱耦合到剩余环境影响的量子系统。

The thermodynamics and non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum systems in contact with environmental degrees of freedom---known as open quantum systems---are topics of primary importance in physics and chemistry. This project will develop new theoretical techniques for analysing the behaviour of autonomous quantum thermal machines at strong coupling between the system and reservoirs. This has practical applications to nanoscale heat engines and refrigerators, as well as to the generation of quantum correlations from thermal resources. The key aim of the research is to understand whether strong reservoir coupling can be beneficial in such situations, or if it generally acts in detrimental manner. A further objective is to define fundamental quantities such as heat and work in the presence of system-reservoir correlations. To attain these goals the student will develop novel numerical techniques to describe the non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum systems. These are based on mapping a quantum system strongly coupled to its surrounding environments to one that is expanded to include the dominant environmental influences, but is then weakly coupled to residual environmental influences.