Work-minimizing protocols in driven-dissipative quantum systems: An impulse-ansatz approach

Quantum Physics arXiv:2511.15084 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 19 Nov 2025] Title:Work-minimizing protocols in driven-dissipative quantum systems: An impulse-ansatz approach Authors:Masaaki Tokieda View a PDF of the paper titled Work-minimizing protocols in driven-dissipative quantum systems: An impulse-ansatz approach, by Masaaki Tokieda View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:The second law of thermodynamics sets a lower bound on the work required to drive a system between thermal equilibrium states, with equality attained in the quasistatic limit. For finite-time processes, part of the extractable work is inevitably dissipated, motivating the search for driving protocols that minimize the work. While classical stochastic systems have been extensively explored, quantum analyses remain limited and often rely on Markovian master equations valid only in the weak-coupling regime. Here, we study minimal work protocols for representative two-level systems coupled to a harmonic-oscillator bath using a numerically exact method. Inspired by known optimal solutions for Brownian oscillators, we introduce an impulse ansatz that incorporates possible boundary impulses and test it across a wide range of bath parameters. We find that impulse-like features remain nearly optimal in the quantum, non-Markovian regime, at short times. We also identify cases in which the widely used Markovian master equation fails even at weak coupling, underscoring the need for fully quantum approaches to finite-time thermodynamic optimization. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2511.15084 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2511.15084v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2511.15084 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Masaaki Tokieda [view email] [v1] Wed, 19 Nov 2025 03:49:17 UTC (118 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Work-minimizing protocols in driven-dissipative quantum systems: An impulse-ansatz approach, by Masaaki TokiedaView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2025-11 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)