Recent studies have developed fundamental limitations on nanoscale thermodynamics, in terms of a set of independent free energy relations. Here we show that free energy relations cannot properly describe quantum coherence in thermodynamic processes. By casting time-asymmetry as a quantifiable, fundamental resource of a quantum state, we arrive at an additional, independent set of thermodynamic constraints that naturally extend the existing ones. These asymmetry relations reveal that the traditional Szilárd engine argument does not extend automatically to quantum coherences, but instead only relational coherences in a multipartite scenario can contribute to thermodynamic work. We find that coherence transformations are always irreversible. Our results also reveal additional structural parallels between thermodynamics and the theory of entanglement.

The first law of thermodynamics imposes not just a constraint on the energy content of systems in extreme quantum regimes but also symmetry constraints related to the thermodynamic processing of quantum coherence. We show that this thermodynamic symmetry decomposes any quantum state into mode operators that quantify the coherence present in the state. We then establish general upper and lower bounds for the evolution of quantum coherence under arbitrary thermal operations, valid for any temperature. We identify primitive coherence manipulations and show that the transfer of coherence between energy levels manifests irreversibility not captured by free energy. Moreover, the recently developed thermomajorization relations on block-diagonal quantum states are observed to be special cases of this symmetry analysis.

The interplay between quantum-mechanical properties, such as coherence, and classical notions, such as energy, is a subtle topic at the forefront of quantum thermodynamics. The traditional Carnot argument limits the conversion of heat to work; here we critically assess the problem of converting coherence to work. Through a careful account of all resources involved in the thermodynamic transformations within a fully quantum-mechanical treatment, we show that there exist thermal machines extracting work from coherence arbitrarily well. Such machines only need to act on individual copies of a state and can be reused. On the other hand, we show that for any thermal machine with finite resources not all the coherence of a state can be extracted as work. However, even bounded thermal machines can be reused infinitely many times in the process of work extraction from coherence.

I give a self-contained introduction to the resource theory approach to quantum thermodynamics. I will introduce in an elementary manner the technical machinery necessary to unpack and prove the core statements of the theory. The topics covered include the so-called 'many second laws of thermodynamics', thermo-majorisation and symmetry constraints on the evolution of quantum coherence. Among the elementary applications, I explicitly work out the bounds on deterministic work extraction and formation, discuss the complete solution of the theory for a single qubit and present the irreversibility of coherence transfers. The aim is to facilitate the task of those researchers interested in engaging and contributing to this topic, presenting scope and motivation of its core assumptions and discussing the relation between the resource theory and complementary approaches.

We discuss the role of contextuality within quantum fluctuation theorems, in the light of a recent no-go result by Perarnau-Llobet et al. We show that any fluctuation theorem reproducing the two-point-measurement scheme for classical states either admits a notion of work quasiprobability or fails to describe protocols exhibiting contextuality. Conversely, we describe a protocol that smoothly interpolates between the two-point-measurement work distribution for projective measurements and Allahverdyan's work quasiprobability for weak measurements, and show that the negativity of the latter is a direct signature of contextuality.