Black Box Work Extraction and Composite Hypothesis Testing

Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 250401 (2024) Work extraction is one of the most central processes in quantum thermodynamics. However, the prior analysis of optimal extractable work has been restricted to a limited operational scenario where complete information about the initial state is given. Here, we introduce a general framework of black box work extraction, which addresses the inaccessibility of information on the initial state. We show that the optimal extractable work in the black box setting is completely characterized by the performance of a composite hypothesis testing task, a fundamental problem in information theory.We employ this general relation to reduce the asymptotic black box work extraction to the quantum Stein's lemma in composite hypothesis testing, allowing us to provide their exact characterization in terms of the Helmholtz free energy. We also show a new quantum Stein's lemma motivated in this physical setting, where a composite hypothesis contains a certain correlation. Our work exhibits the importance of information about the initial state and gives a new interpretation of the quantities in the composite quantum hypothesis testing, encouraging the interplay between the physical settings and the information theory.