The second law and beyond in microscopic quantum setups

Understand

The Clausius inequality (CI) is one of the most versatile forms of the second law.

• Although it was originally conceived for macroscopic steam engines, it is also applicable to quantum single particle machines.
• Moreover, the CI is the main connecting thread between classical microscopic thermodynamics and nanoscopic quantum thermodynamics.
• In this chapter, we study three different approaches for obtaining the CI.