Quantum Horn's lemma, finite heat baths, and the third law of thermodynamics
Quantum Horn's lemma, finite heat baths, and the third law of thermodynamics
Interactions of quantum systems with their environment play a crucial role in resource-theoretic approaches to thermodynamics in the microscopic regime. Here, we analyze the possible state transitions in the presence of "small" heat baths of bounded dimension and energy. We show that for operations on quantum systems with fully degenerate …