Comments on: Upending my equilibrium

By: Happy 200th birthday, Carnot’s theorem! | Quantum Frontiers

Happy 200th birthday, Carnot’s theorem! | Quantum Frontiers — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 17:32:37 +0000

[…] roiling up the gas unnecessarily—by expanding or compressing it too quickly. The gas must stay in equilibrium, a calm, quiescent state. One can keep the gas quiescent only by running the cycle infinitely […]

By: The Book of Mark, Chapter 2 | Quantum Frontiers

The Book of Mark, Chapter 2 | Quantum Frontiers — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 11:38:22 +0000

[…] is much larger than the other, we expect the smaller system to thermalize; yet incompatibility invalidates derivations of the thermal state’s form. Incompatibility reduces the thermodynamic entropy produced by […]

By: Memories of things past | Quantum Frontiers

Memories of things past | Quantum Frontiers — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 03:02:13 +0000

[…] powder displaced by a skier on the slopes above us. I first participated in a BIRS workshop as a PhD student, and then I returned as a postdoc. Now, I was co-organizing a workshop to which I brought a PhD […]

By: The power of being able to say “I can explain that” | Quantum Frontiers

The power of being able to say “I can explain that” | Quantum Frontiers — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 01:16:28 +0000

[…] relations. The ions began with a fairly well-defined amount of each spin component, as described in another blog post. The ions exchanged stuff for a while, and then the experimentalists measured the small system’s […]

By: Cutting the quantum mustard | Quantum Frontiers

Cutting the quantum mustard | Quantum Frontiers — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 23:58:55 +0000

[…] than if none are. The quasiprobabilities can be negative only if the state and observables fail to commute with each other. So noncommutation—a hallmark of quantum physics—underlies exceptional […]

By: Up we go! or From abstract theory to experimental proposal | Quantum Frontiers

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:22:21 +0000

[…] four years ago, other collaborators and I uncovered a thermodynamics problem, as did two other groups at the same time. Thermodynamicists often consider small systems that […]

By: The paper that begged for a theme song | Quantum Frontiers

The paper that begged for a theme song | Quantum Frontiers — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 01:08:02 +0000

[…] had a hunch as to how he could derive such a bound. I’ve blogged, many times, about thermodynamic resource theories. Thermodynamic resource theories are simple […]

By: A finger painting for John Preskill | Quantum Frontiers

A finger painting for John Preskill | Quantum Frontiers — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 03:37:07 +0000

[…] was explaining a quantum-thermodynamics problem. I reviewed the problem’s classical doppelgänger and a strategy for solving the doppelgänger. […]

By: Hamiltonian: An American Musical (without Americana or music) | Quantum Frontiers

Wed, 01 Feb 2017 04:51:49 +0000

[…] Imagine flattening the landscape abruptly, as by stamping on the snow. This flattening triggers a phase transition. Phase transitions are drastic changes, as from colony to country. The flattening frees particles to hop from site to site. The particles spread out, in accordance with the Hamiltonian’s term. The particles come to obey thermodynamics, a branch of physics that I’ve effused about. […]

By: The weak shall inherit the quasiprobability. | Quantum Frontiers

The weak shall inherit the quasiprobability. | Quantum Frontiers — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 04:13:22 +0000

[…] community was gracious enough to tolerate a seminar from me about thermal states of quantum systems. You can watch the […]