Thermodynamics and non-equilibrium dynamics of open quantum systems

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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.