Nonequilibrium entropy production for open quantum systems

Sebastian Deffner, Eric Lutz

Published 2011-03-24, updated 2011-03-28Version 2

We consider open quantum systems weakly coupled to a heat reservoir and driven by arbitrary time-dependent parameters. We derive exact microscopic expressions for the nonequilibrium entropy production and entropy production rate, valid arbitrarily far from equilibrium. By using the two-point energy measurement statistics for system and reservoir, we further obtain a quantum generalization of the integrated fluctuation theorem put forward by Seifert [PRL 95, 040602 (2005)].