  The study of thermodynamic fluctuations allows one to relate the free energy
difference between two equilibrium states with the work done on a system
through processes far from equilibrium. This finding plays a crucial role in
the quantum regime, where the definition of work becomes non-trivial. Based on
these relations, here we develop a simple interferometric method allowing a
direct estimation of the work distribution and the average dissipative work
during a driven thermodynamic process by superposing the forward and
time-reversal evolutions of the process. We show that our scheme provides
useful upper bounds on the average dissipative work even without full control
over the thermodynamic process, and we propose methodological variations
depending on the possible experimental limitations encountered. Finally, we
exemplify its applicability by an experimental proposal for implementing our
method on a quantum photonics system, on which the thermodynamic process is
performed through polarization rotations induced by liquid crystals acting in a
discrete temporal regime.
