Beyond the thermodynamic limit: finite-size corrections to state interconversion rates

Understand

Thermodynamics is traditionally constrained to the study of macroscopic systems whose energy fluctuations are negligible compared to their average energy.

• Here, we push beyond this thermodynamic limit by developing a mathematical framework to rigorously address the problem of thermodynamic transformations of finite-size systems.
• More formally, we analyse state interconversion under thermal operations and between arbitrary energy-incoherent states.
• We find precise relations between the optimal rate at which interconversion can take place and the desired infidelity of the final state when the system size is sufficiently large.