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arXiv:1602.00031 · Physical review. E

Quantum thermal machine acting on a many-body quantum system: Role of correlations in thermodynamic tasks

Pierre Doyeux, Bruno Leggio, Riccardo Messina, Mauro Antezza

Published Feb 23, 2016• 43 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the functioning of a three-level thermal machine when acting on a many-qubit system, the entire system being placed in an electromagnetic field in a stationary out-of-thermal-equilibrium configuration. This realistic setup stands between the two so-far-explored cases of single-qubit and macroscopic object targets, providing information on the scaling with system size of purely quantum properties in thermodynamic contexts. We show that, thanks to the presence of robust correlations among the qubits induced by the field, thermodynamic tasks can be delivered by the machine both locally to each qubit and collectively to the many-qubit system: This allows a task to be delivered also on systems much bigger than the machine size.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.93.022134

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We study the functioning of a three-level thermal machine when acting on a many-qubit system, the entire system being placed in an electromagnetic field in a stationary out-of-thermal-equilibrium configuration. This realistic setup stands between the two so-far-explored cases of single-qubit and macroscopic object targets, providing information on the scaling with system size of purely quantum properties in thermodynamic contexts. We show that, thanks to the presence of robust correlations among the qubits induced by the field, thermodynamic tasks can be delivered by the machine both locally to each qubit and collectively to the many-qubit system: This allows a task to be delivered also on systems much bigger than the machine size.
We will discuss the behavior of one or more elementary quantum system (atom, molecules, quantum dot, …) interacting with a stationary, simple and rich electromagnetic environment out of thermal equilibrium: The electromagnetic field is produced by a simple configuration of macroscopic objects held at thermal equilibrium at different temperatures. We will show how the internal atomic dynamics can be deeply affected by the non equilibrium configuration leading to unexpected phenomena like a spontaneous inversion of population, new cooling mechanisms obtained by heating the system, and the possibility to create and protect entanglement in a stationary and robust way. Finally, we will discuss how this system may directly allow the realization of atomic quantum thermal machines, with high efficiency and a genuine quantum behavior.
We propose a configuration of a single three-level quantum emitter embedded in a non-equilibrium steady electromagnetic environment, able to stabilize and control the local temperatures of a target system it interacts with, consisting of a collection of coupled two-level systems. The temperatures are induced by dissipative processes only, without the need of further external couplings for each qubit. Moreover, by acting on a set of easily tunable geometric parameters, we demonstrate the possibility to manipulate and tune each qubit temperature independently over a remarkably broad range of values. These findings address one standard problem in quantum-scale thermodynamics, providing a way to induce a desired distribution of temperature among interacting qubits and to protect it from external noise sources.
Quantum mechanics has given us a new playground in which to experiment that boasts several unique features. In this thesis, we explore it in the context of thermodynamics: looking at what kind of thermal devices can be constructed and how quantum behaviour affects them. We consider three research strands. In the first part we formulate a selection of heat engines with two-qubit systems, utilising environments that induce quantum correlations into the system. We see that these correlations can have some effects on the work of the engine, but this effect is system dependent. Describing the dynamics of a quantum system in contact with an external environment is often achieved with a master equation. When considering systems comprised of multiple subsystems, the description becomes more complicated and some of the master equations that have been used previously produce unphysical results. In the second part of this thesis we show that if one does the proper analysis of the microscopic derivation of these master equations, then no thermodynamical inconsistencies occur. When one considers a system connected to three or more environments, a whole new set of possible thermodynamical machines becomes available. One notable case of these is the absorption refrigerator, which performs refrigeration without the need for an external work source. For the third part, we show how one can construct an absorption refrigerator using a three-qubit system with two-body interactions and describe its operation. We also show some thermal control properties of the three-qubit system.
The functions of the smallest self-contained thermal machine consisting of a single qutrit are studied when the weak internal coupling assumption is relaxed. It is shown that in the presence of one target to be cooled the strong coupling is not beneficial to the refrigeration. The reason is explained by examining the effect of the strong coupling on the contributions of all eigenstates transitions to the heat current of the related thermal reservoir. When acting simultaneously on two targets, the machine can be manipulated to implement distributed tasks on them, such as cooling one target and meanwhile heating another one, by adjusting the coupling strengths between the machine with the two targets. In particular, we show that the machine can realize temperature reversal for the two qubits, namely, the qubit that is coupled to the high temperature reservoir is refrigerated to a temperature below that of the qubit contacting with the low temperature reservoir.
Thermodynamics of quantum systems and quantum thermal machines are rapidly developing fields, which have already delivered several promising results, as well as raised many intriguing questions. Many-body quantum machines present new opportunities stemming from many-body effects. At the same time, they pose new challenges related to many-body physics. In this short review we discuss some of the recent developments on technologies based on many-body quantum systems. We mainly focus on many-body effects in quantum thermal machines. We also briefly address the role played by many-body systems in the development of quantum batteries and quantum probes.
Technological and scientific advances have given rise to an era in which coherent quantum-mechanical phenomena can be probed and experimentally-realised over unprecedented timescales in condensed matter physics. In turn, scientific interest in non-equilibrium dynamics and irreversibility signatures of thermodynamics has taken place in recent decades, particularly in relation to cold-atom platforms and thermoelectric devices. In this PhD thesis I summarise some of the most important results obtained over the duration of my PhD, on the topic of thermodynamics involving interacting many-body quantum systems. The topics of discussion encompass three main themes: spin/particle transport in non-integrable systems, explorations in eigenstate thermalisation and finite-temperature transport in autonomous thermal machines. By questioning the effect of local integrability-breaking perturbations, I describe the subtle effects that may rise from conservation laws and their connection to linear response transport using microscopic models. Then, I describe thermalisation in the context of the eigenstate thermalisation hypothesis and its consequence to multipartite entanglement and high-order correlation functions. Finally, motivated by the necessity of describing quantum thermal machines in the finite-temperature regime, I introduce a novel tensor-network based method to investigate thermodynamic properties of autonomous machines that employ interacting many-body systems as working media.