Full statistics of non-equilibrium heat and work for many-body quantum Otto engines and universal bounds: A non-equilibrium Green's function approach

Abstract: We consider a generic four-stroke quantum Otto engine consisting of two unitary and two thermalization strokes with an arbitrary many-body working medium. Using the Schwinger-Keldysh non-equilibrium Green's function formalism, we provide an analytical expression for the cumulant generating function corresponding to the joint probability distribution of non-equilibrium work and heat. The obtained result is valid up to the second order of the external driving amplitude. We then focus on the linear response limit and obtain Onsager's transport coefficients for the generic Otto cycle and showed that the traditional fluctuation-dissipation relation for the total work is violated in the quantum domain, whereas for heat it is preserved. This leads to remarkable consequences in obtaining universal constraints on heat and work fluctuations for engine and refrigerator regimes of the Otto cycle and further allows us to make connections to the thermodynamic uncertainty relations. These findings are illustrated using a paradigmatic model that can be feasibly implemented in experiments.