A Demon that remembers: An agential approach towards quantum thermodynamics of temporal correlations

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2604.04462v1
• Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2026 06:20:22 GMT
• Title: A Demon that remembers: An agential approach towards quantum thermodynamics of temporal correlations
• Abstract summary: This thesis develops a decision-theoretic framework for extracting thermodynamic work from temporal correlations in quantum systems.<n>We show that exploiting memory effects allows adaptive strategies to surpass non-adaptive bounds.<n>We also tackle work extraction from unknown sources using reinforcement learning.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: This thesis develops a decision-theoretic framework for extracting thermodynamic work from temporal correlations in quantum systems. We model a classical agent -- lacking quantum memory -- performing adaptive work extraction through continuous inference and decision-making under uncertainty. By introducing $ρ^*$-ideal protocols, we demonstrate that exploiting memory effects allows adaptive strategies to surpass non-adaptive bounds. We formalize this via the Time-Ordered Free Energy (TOFE), a novel upper bound for causal, adaptive operations that reveals a thermodynamic gap linked to adaptive ordered discord. Additionally, we tackle work extraction from unknown sources using reinforcement learning. By adapting multi-armed bandit algorithms, we show an agent can simultaneously learn an unknown i.i.d. quantum state and extract work, achieving polylogarithmic cumulative dissipation that significantly outperforms standard tomography. Overall, this work lays the foundation for predictive and learning-based quantum thermodynamics.

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