A Resource Theory for Work and Heat

Understand

Several recent results on thermodynamics have been obtained using the tools of quantum information theory and resource theories.

• So far, the resource theories utilised to describe thermodynamics have assumed the existence of an infinite thermal reservoir, by declaring that thermal states at some background temperature come for free.
• Here, we propose a resource theory of quantum thermodynamics without a background temperature, so that no states at all come for free.
• We apply this resource theory to the case of many non-interacting systems, and show that all quantum states are classified by their entropy and average energy, even arbitrarily far away from equilibrium.