Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1411.5576 · Physical Review A

Heat flux and quantum correlations in dissipative cascaded systems

Salvatore Lorenzo, Alessandro Farace, Francesco Ciccarello, G. Massimo Palma, Vittorio Giovannetti

Published Feb 25, 2015• 57 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the dynamics of heat flux in the thermalization process of a pair of identical quantum systems that interact dissipatively with a reservoir in a cascaded fashion. Despite that the open dynamics of the bipartite system $S$ is globally Lindbladian, one of the subsystems ``sees'' the reservoir in a state modified by the interaction with the other subsystem and hence it undergoes a non-Markovian dynamics. As a consequence, the heat flow exhibits a nonexponential time behavior which can greatly deviate from the case where each party is independently coupled to the reservoir. We investigate both thermal and correlated initial states of $S$ and show that the presence of correlations at the beginning can considerably affect the heat-flux rate. We carry out our study in two paradigmatic cases---a pair of harmonic oscillators with a reservoir of bosonic modes and two qubits with a reservoir of fermionic modes---and compare the corresponding behaviors. In the case of qubits and for initial thermal states, we find that the trace distance discord is at any time interpretable as the correlated contribution to the total heat flux.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.91.022121

Related papers

Heat fluxes in a two-qubit cascaded system due to coherences of a non-thermal bath

Zhong‐Xiao Man, Yun‐Jie Xia, Nguyen Ba An

Abstract We study a cascaded system of two subsystems repeatedly interacting with a bath prepared in various non-thermal states. Effects of different types of bath coherence on dynamics of the system heat flux are explored. For a single-qubit bath with the displacement coherence, heat flux of each subsystem is divided into dissipative and coherent parts. In the stationary regime, the dissipative heat fluxes are the same for the two subsystems, but the coherent parts are not due to the cascaded feature. In the transient regime, heat fluxes occur even when the system and the bath have the same temperature and, more surprisingly, heat flow reversal appears when temperatures of the system and the bath differ. For a two-qubit bath we consider two types of coherence: the squeezing and the heat-exchange ones. In the stationary regime, the squeezing coherence establishes correlations between the subsystems, each of which is evolving to its thermal state with a temperature identical to the bath’s. The squeezing coherence slightly influences only the dynamics of the subsystem that interacts with the bath later. As for the heat-exchange coherence, it forces the total system to thermalize to a state with the temperature related to both magnitude and relative phase of the coherence. Particularly, depending on the relative phases, the heat-exchange coherence can amplify or suppress the heat flux during the time evolution.

Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•Sep 2, 2020•6 citations

Effects of one-way correlations on thermodynamics of a multipartite open quantum system

Qi Zhang, Yun‐Jie Xia, Zhong‐Xiao Man

In this study we investigate how correlations of a multipartite quantum system affect its thermodynamics when subsystems of which interact with a thermal reservoir in a cascaded manner. We propose the concept of apparent temperature for an individual subsystem, which is determined by one-way correlations of the subsystem with its preceding subsystems and governs the direction of heat flow between the subsystem and reservoir. We demonstrate the possibility of reversing heat flow between the subsystem and reservoir conditioned on the apparent temperature and derive the conditions for achieving this reversal. We also examine the entropy production of this thermodynamic process and observe a tradeoff between contributions from one-way and global correlations to entropy production. Our results provide insight into the roles of one-way multipartite correlations on thermodynamic properties and expand the ways of applications of quantum resources in the area of thermodynamics.

Physical Review A•Dec 13, 2023•8 citations

Quantum correlation of qubit-reservoir system in dissipative environments

Tao Wu, Jiadong Shi, Lizhi Yu +2 more

In this work, the dynamics of quantum correlation (QC) in terms of geometric discord and its transfer coupled with dissipative reservoirs are investigated. Taken two canonical cases where the qubits of interest are initially prepared in extended Werner-like state and W-like states into account, we specifically reveal the dynamical behaviors of the geometric discord as each qubit locally interacts with its surrounding infinite degree-of-freedom reservoir. In the scenarios, the short-term and long-term dynamics of the geometric discord for the qubit- and reservoir-subsystem as well as its transfers between them are observed detailedly. It turns out that the geometric discord of qubit-subsystem decays asymptotically to zero while the counterpart of reservoir-subsystem can revive from time t = 0 to steady value, which sheds light on a transfer of the discord from the qubit-subsystem to the corresponding reservoir-subsystem.

Scientific Reports•Aug 11, 2017•8 citations

Heat due to system-reservoir correlations in thermal equilibrium

Joachim Ankerhold, Jukka P Pekola

The heat flow between a quantum system and its reservoir is analyzed when initially both are in a separable thermal state and asymptotically approach a correlated equilibrium. General findings are illustrated for specific systems and various classes of non-Markovian reservoirs. System-bath correlations are shown to be substantial at low temperatures even in the weak coupling regime. As a consequence, predictions of work and heat for actual experiments obtained within conventional perturbative approaches may often be questionable. Correlations induce characteristic imprints in heat capacities which opens a proposal to measure them in solid state devices.

arXiv:1404.4719•Physical Review B•Aug 22, 2014•34 citations

Quantum Discord of Two Bosonic Modes in Two-Reservoir Model

Аурелиан Исар

In the framework of the theory of open systems based on completely positive quantum dynamical semigroups, we give a description of the continuous variable quantum discord for a system consisting of two non-interacting bosonic modes embedded in two independent thermal environments. We describe the evolution of discord in terms of the covariance matrix for Gaussian input states. In the case of an entangled initial squeezed vacuum state, we analyze the time evolution of the Gaussian quantum discord, which is a measure of all quantum correlations in the bipartite state, including entanglement, and show that quantum discord decays asymptotically in time under the effect of the thermal reservoirs. For an initial separable pure state, the Gaussian quantum discord is zero and it keeps this value during the whole evolution of the system.

Open Systems & Information Dynamics•Sep 1, 2013•12 citations

Rise of quantum correlations in non-Markovian environments in continuous-variable systems

Xin Liu, Wei Wu

We investigate the time evolution of quantum correlations, which are measured by Gaussian quantum discord in a continuous-variable bipartite system subject to common and independent non-Markovian environments. Considering an initial two-mode Gaussian symmetric squeezed thermal state, we show that quantum correlations can be created during the non-Markovian evolution, which is different from the Markovian process. Furthermore, we find that the temperature is a key factor during the evolution in non-Markovian environments. For common reservoirs, a maximum creation of quantum correlations may occur under an appropriate temperature. For independent reservoirs, the non-Markovianity of the total system corresponds to the subsystem whose temperature is higher. In both common and independent environments, the Gaussian quantum discord is influenced by the temperature and the photon number of each mode.

Chinese Physics B•Jul 1, 2014•7 citations
We study the dynamics of heat flux in the thermalization process of a pair of identical quantum systems that interact dissipatively with a reservoir in a cascaded fashion. Despite that the open dynamics of the bipartite system SSS is globally Lindbladian, one of the subsystems ``sees'' the reservoir in a state modified by the interaction with the other subsystem and hence it undergoes a non-Markovian dynamics. As a consequence, the heat flow exhibits a nonexponential time behavior which can greatly deviate from the case where each party is independently coupled to the reservoir. We investigate both thermal and correlated initial states of SSS and show that the presence of correlations at the beginning can considerably affect the heat-flux rate. We carry out our study in two paradigmatic cases---a pair of harmonic oscillators with a reservoir of bosonic modes and two qubits with a reservoir of fermionic modes---and compare the corresponding behaviors. In the case of qubits and for initial thermal states, we find that the trace distance discord is at any time interpretable as the correlated contribution to the total heat flux.
Abstract We study a cascaded system of two subsystems repeatedly interacting with a bath prepared in various non-thermal states. Effects of different types of bath coherence on dynamics of the system heat flux are explored. For a single-qubit bath with the displacement coherence, heat flux of each subsystem is divided into dissipative and coherent parts. In the stationary regime, the dissipative heat fluxes are the same for the two subsystems, but the coherent parts are not due to the cascaded feature. In the transient regime, heat fluxes occur even when the system and the bath have the same temperature and, more surprisingly, heat flow reversal appears when temperatures of the system and the bath differ. For a two-qubit bath we consider two types of coherence: the squeezing and the heat-exchange ones. In the stationary regime, the squeezing coherence establishes correlations between the subsystems, each of which is evolving to its thermal state with a temperature identical to the bath’s. The squeezing coherence slightly influences only the dynamics of the subsystem that interacts with the bath later. As for the heat-exchange coherence, it forces the total system to thermalize to a state with the temperature related to both magnitude and relative phase of the coherence. Particularly, depending on the relative phases, the heat-exchange coherence can amplify or suppress the heat flux during the time evolution.
In this study we investigate how correlations of a multipartite quantum system affect its thermodynamics when subsystems of which interact with a thermal reservoir in a cascaded manner. We propose the concept of apparent temperature for an individual subsystem, which is determined by one-way correlations of the subsystem with its preceding subsystems and governs the direction of heat flow between the subsystem and reservoir. We demonstrate the possibility of reversing heat flow between the subsystem and reservoir conditioned on the apparent temperature and derive the conditions for achieving this reversal. We also examine the entropy production of this thermodynamic process and observe a tradeoff between contributions from one-way and global correlations to entropy production. Our results provide insight into the roles of one-way multipartite correlations on thermodynamic properties and expand the ways of applications of quantum resources in the area of thermodynamics.
In this work, the dynamics of quantum correlation (QC) in terms of geometric discord and its transfer coupled with dissipative reservoirs are investigated. Taken two canonical cases where the qubits of interest are initially prepared in extended Werner-like state and W-like states into account, we specifically reveal the dynamical behaviors of the geometric discord as each qubit locally interacts with its surrounding infinite degree-of-freedom reservoir. In the scenarios, the short-term and long-term dynamics of the geometric discord for the qubit- and reservoir-subsystem as well as its transfers between them are observed detailedly. It turns out that the geometric discord of qubit-subsystem decays asymptotically to zero while the counterpart of reservoir-subsystem can revive from time t = 0 to steady value, which sheds light on a transfer of the discord from the qubit-subsystem to the corresponding reservoir-subsystem.
The heat flow between a quantum system and its reservoir is analyzed when initially both are in a separable thermal state and asymptotically approach a correlated equilibrium. General findings are illustrated for specific systems and various classes of non-Markovian reservoirs. System-bath correlations are shown to be substantial at low temperatures even in the weak coupling regime. As a consequence, predictions of work and heat for actual experiments obtained within conventional perturbative approaches may often be questionable. Correlations induce characteristic imprints in heat capacities which opens a proposal to measure them in solid state devices.
In the framework of the theory of open systems based on completely positive quantum dynamical semigroups, we give a description of the continuous variable quantum discord for a system consisting of two non-interacting bosonic modes embedded in two independent thermal environments. We describe the evolution of discord in terms of the covariance matrix for Gaussian input states. In the case of an entangled initial squeezed vacuum state, we analyze the time evolution of the Gaussian quantum discord, which is a measure of all quantum correlations in the bipartite state, including entanglement, and show that quantum discord decays asymptotically in time under the effect of the thermal reservoirs. For an initial separable pure state, the Gaussian quantum discord is zero and it keeps this value during the whole evolution of the system.
We investigate the time evolution of quantum correlations, which are measured by Gaussian quantum discord in a continuous-variable bipartite system subject to common and independent non-Markovian environments. Considering an initial two-mode Gaussian symmetric squeezed thermal state, we show that quantum correlations can be created during the non-Markovian evolution, which is different from the Markovian process. Furthermore, we find that the temperature is a key factor during the evolution in non-Markovian environments. For common reservoirs, a maximum creation of quantum correlations may occur under an appropriate temperature. For independent reservoirs, the non-Markovianity of the total system corresponds to the subsystem whose temperature is higher. In both common and independent environments, the Gaussian quantum discord is influenced by the temperature and the photon number of each mode.