Thermodynamic consistency of quantum master equations

Quantum adiabatic Markovian master equations

We develop from first principles Markovian master equations suited for studying the time evolution of a system evolving adiabatically while coupled weakly to a thermal bath. We derive two sets of equations in the adiabatic limit, one using the rotating wave (secular) approximation that results in a master equation in Lindblad form, the other without the rotating wave approximation but not in Li...

Fluctuation theorems for quantum master equations.

A quantum fluctuation theorem for a driven quantum subsystem interacting with its environment is derived based solely on the assumption that its reduced density matrix obeys a closed evolution equation--i.e., a quantum master equation (QME). Quantum trajectories and their associated entropy, heat, and work appear naturally by transforming the QME to a time-dependent Liouville space basis that d...

Master equations for correlated quantum channels.

We derive the general form of a master equation describing the reduced time evolution of a sequence of subsystems "propagating" in an environment which can be described as a sequence of subenvironments. The interaction between subsystems and subenvironments is described in terms of a collision model, with the irreversible dynamics of the subenvironments between collisions explicitly taken into ...

Quantum Master Equations in Electronic Transport

In this chapter we present several quantum master equations (QMEs) that describe the time evolution of the density matrix at various levels of approximations. We emphasize the similarity between the single-particle QME and the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), starting from truncating the BBGKY chain of equations and ending with similar Monte-Carlo approaches to solve them stochastically and ...

Quantum dissipative master equations: Some exact results