The Open Quantum Meetings are one-day mini-symposiums held in rotation in various UK universities. These meetings are being sponsored by the London Mathematical Society and aim at building a strong network of UK-based collaborations on the thermodynamics of open quantum systems. During the academic year 2017–2018, these were the University of Nottingham, the University of Manchester, and Imperial College London and, during the year 2018–2019, they are being held at the University of Nottingham, the University of Manchester, Queen's University Belfast, and the University of Exeter.
Quantum thermodynamics is a thriving field, which has experienced an accelerated growth during the past years. It is aimed at understanding the emergence of thermodynamics from quantum theory, and encompasses several areas within mathematical physics, such as the theory of open quantum systems, statistical mechanics, quantum many-body physics, quantum transport, and quantum information theory.
In particular, we will focus on exploring the thermodynamics of quantum systems that interact strongly with their surroundings. This is an extremely rich problem for two reasons: On the one hand, the mathematical treatment of strongly-coupled open quantum systems is far from simple—some of the most elementary models of this type cannot be solved analytically, and even their numerical treatment becomes problematic in the regime of strong interactions. On the other hand, such strong coupling complicates the definition of a clear-cut boundary between system and surroundings which, in turn, makes the identification of the relevant thermodynamic variables ambiguous and problematic.
Understanding the thermodynamics of strongly-coupled open quantum systems holds promise to deliver interesting applications of quantum thermodynamics to emergent quantum technologies and to allow for a deeper understanding between thermodynamics and quantum theory.
Quantum thermodynamics is a thriving field, which has experienced an accelerated growth during the past years. It is aimed at understanding the emergence of thermodynamics from quantum theory, and encompasses several areas within mathematical physics, such as the theory of open quantum systems, statistical mechanics, quantum many-body physics, quantum transport, and quantum information theory.
In particular, we will focus on exploring the thermodynamics of quantum systems that interact strongly with their surroundings. This is an extremely rich problem for two reasons: On the one hand, the mathematical treatment of strongly-coupled open quantum systems is far from simple—some of the most elementary models of this type cannot be solved analytically, and even their numerical treatment becomes problematic in the regime of strong interactions. On the other hand, such strong coupling complicates the definition of a clear-cut boundary between system and surroundings which, in turn, makes the identification of the relevant thermodynamic variables ambiguous and problematic.
Understanding the thermodynamics of strongly-coupled open quantum systems holds promise to deliver interesting applications of quantum thermodynamics to emergent quantum technologies and to allow for a deeper understanding between thermodynamics and quantum theory.