Quantum fluctuation theorems in the strong damping limit

We consider a driven quantum particle in the strong friction regime described by the quantum Smoluchowski equation. We derive Crooks and Jarzynski type relations for the reduced quantum system by properly generalizing the entropy production to take into account the non-Gibbsian character of the equilibrium distribution. In the case of a nonequilibrium steady state, we obtain a quantum version of the Hatano-Sasa relation. We further propose an experiment with driven Josephson junctions that would allow to investigate nonequilibrium entropy fluctuations in overdamped quantum systems. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2011