Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2019) 134: 282
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2019-12687-9

Regular Article

Clausius inequality versus quantum coherence

¹ Research Group on Foundations of Quantum Theory and Information, Department of Chemistry, Sharif University of Technology, P.O.Box 11365-9516, Tehran, Iran
² School of Physics, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), P.O.Box 19395-5531, Tehran, Iran

^* e-mail: shafiee@sharif.edu

Received: 15 December 2018
Accepted: 12 April 2019
Published online: 25 June 2019

Abstract

In this study, we model a harmonic oscillator that enters an interferometer partially coupled to a thermal bath of oscillatory fields by employing a Brownian-type Lindblad master equation. More specifically, we investigate the dynamics and the variations of the thermodynamic quantities of the system at different temperatures. We recognize that although the system can remain coherent during its interaction with the thermal bath in the low-temperature limit, the system’s entropy production violates the Clausius inequality. Furthermore, we argue that the system’s coherence is the source of this violation, rather than the entanglement degree of system-environment, as reported in previous studies.