The second law-type work relation in non-equilibrium steady states in one-dimensional quantum lattice systems

Abstract

We consider the Non-Equilibrium Steady State induced by two infinite quantum thermal reservoirs at different temperatures and derive an inequality giving the upper bound of the work extracted by cyclic operations. This upper bound tends to 0 in the equilibrium limit and the inequality reproduces the second law of thermodynamics that one cannot extract any work from equilibrium states by cyclic operations. In addition, we consider global cyclic operations and obtain an upper bound of the work density in one-dimensional quantum lattice systems, which depends on the model and the temperatures of the reservoirs. This bound is independent of the operations and also tends to 0 in the equilibrium limit.