A CYCLE DECOMPOSITION AND ENTROPY PRODUCTION FOR CIRCULANT QUANTUM MARKOV SEMIGROUPS

Abstract

We propose a definition of cycle representation for Quantum Markov Semigroups (QMS) and of Quantum Entropy Production Rate (QEPR) in terms of the ρ-adjoint. We introduce the class of circulant QMS, which admit non-equilibrium steady states but exhibit symmetries that allow us to compute explicitly the QEPR, gain a deeper insight into the notion of cycle decomposition and prove that quantum detailed balance holds if and only if the QEPR equals zero.