Jarzynski equality and the second law of thermodynamics beyond the weak-coupling limit: The quantum Brownian oscillator

We consider a time-dependent quantum linear oscillator coupled to a bath at an arbitrary strength. We then introduce a generalized Jarzynski equality (GJE) which includes the terms reflecting the system-bath coupling. This enables us to study systematically the coupling effect on the linear oscillator in a non-equilibrium process. This is also associated with the second law of thermodynamics beyond the weak-coupling limit. We next take into consideration the GJE in the classical limit. By this generalization we show that the Jarzynski equality in its original form can be associated with the second law, in both quantal and classical domains, only in the vanishingly small coupling regime.

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