Trade-off between coherence and heat in a non-Markovian dephasing dynamics

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 28 Mar 2026] Trade-off between coherence and heat in a non-Markovian dephasing dynamics Marino P. Lenzarini, Diogo O. Soares-Pinto How quantum coherence influences thermodynamic behavior remains an open question in quantum thermodynamics. Here we investigate this relation within the pure dephasing framework, where a central qubit interacts with a finite Ising-like spin environment. Although the system's internal energy remains constant, the interaction induces decoherence and gives rise to nontrivial thermodynamic features. Within the two-point measurement approach, we show that the heat dissipated into the environment matches the coherent energy contribution appearing in a reformulated first law of quantum thermodynamics. Numerical calculations reveal oscillatory coherence dynamics, with revivals associated with information backflow and non-Markovian effects, as quantified by the Breuer-Laine-Piilo measure. We find that heat and coherence exhibit intertwined temporal behavior, with enhanced heat dissipation during coherence decay and reduced heat during revivals. These results suggest a connection between coherence dynamics and thermodynamic quantities in finite, closed composite systems undergoing pure dephasing. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2603.27387 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2603.27387v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.27387 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Marino Paiva Lenzarini [view email] [v1] Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:37:56 UTC (49 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-03 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)