Heat exchange and fluctuation in Gaussian thermal states in the quantum realm

Abstract: The celebrated exchange fluctuation theorem -- proposed by Jarzynski and W\'ozcik, (Phys Rev. Lett. 92, 230602 (2004)) for heat exchange between two systems in thermal equilibrium at different temperatures -- is explored here for quantum Gaussian states in thermal equilibrium. We employ Wigner distribution function formalism for quantum states, which exhibits close resemblance with the classcial phase-space trajectory description, to arrive at this theorem. For two Gaussian states in thermal equilibrium at two different temperatures kept in contact with each other for a fixed duration of time we show that the quantum Jarzyinski-W\'ozcik theorem agrees with the corresponding classical result in the limit \hbar->0.