Opening the system to the environment: new theories and tools in classical and quantum settings

摘要：量子热力学领域理论物理博士项目。利用量子信息理论和统计物理的工具研究强耦合和量子效应对热力学性质和定律的影响。项目细节：在最初的文献回顾之后，学生将被引导理解全局时间无关的哈密顿量是如何产生局部时间相关的哈密顿量的。学生将建立在什么情况下，局部系统哈密顿量的概念是合理的，当系统是强耦合的，并规定如何实验确认其形式。对于其余的情况，他们将被引导去寻找为什么在这些情况下系统哈密顿量的关联在原则上是不可能的原因。基于这些发现，学生将能够重新表述强耦合开放系统的热力学定律，并识别与标准热力学的任何差异。发展的理论框架将应用于一些最近的实验发展，推动强耦合量子体制。被控制的纳米机械振荡器，作为单个分子的质量传感器是有用的，正是在这种状态下。

Summary: Theoretical physics PhD project in the field of quantum thermodynamics. Investigating the impact of strong coupling and quantum effects on thermodynamic properties and laws using tools from quantum information theory and statistical physics. Project details: Following initial literature review the student will be guided to understand how the global time-independent Hamiltonian gives rise to a local time-dependent Hamiltonian. The student will establish in what situations the notion of a local system Hamiltonian is sensible when the system is strongly coupled and a prescription of how to experimentally confirm its form. For the remaining situations they will be guided in seeking reasons why the association of a system Hamiltonian is in principle impossible for these cases. Based on these findings the student will then be able to reformulate laws of thermodynamics for strongly coupled open systems and identify any differences to standard thermodynamics. The developed theoretical framework will have applications for a number of recent experimental developments that push towards the strongly coupled quantum regime. Controlled nanomechanical oscillators, that are useful as mass sensors for single molecules, are exactly in this regime.