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arXiv:1911.00427 · Physical review. E

Large deviations and fluctuation theorem for the quantum heat current in the spin-boson model

Erik M. Aurell, Brecht Donvil, Kirone Mallick

Published May 15, 2020• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the heat current flowing between two baths consisting of harmonic oscillators interacting with a qubit through a spin-boson coupling. An explicit expression for the generating function of the total heat flowing between the right and left baths is derived by evaluating the corresponding Feynman-Vernon path integral by performing the noninteracting blip approximation (NIBA). We recover the known expression, obtained by using the polaron transform. This generating function satisfies the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem, both before and after performing the NIBA. We also verify that the heat conductance is proportional to the variance of the heat current, retrieving the well-known fluctuation dissipation relation. Finally, we present numerical results for the heat current.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.101.052116

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cond-mat.stat-mechCross-listedarXiv:2606.08839•Jun 9, 2026
We study the heat current flowing between two baths consisting of harmonic oscillators interacting with a qubit through a spin-boson coupling. An explicit expression for the generating function of the total heat flowing between the right and left baths is derived by evaluating the corresponding Feynman-Vernon path integral by performing the noninteracting blip approximation (NIBA). We recover the known expression, obtained by using the polaron transform. This generating function satisfies the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem, both before and after performing the NIBA. We also verify that the heat conductance is proportional to the variance of the heat current, retrieving the well-known fluctuation dissipation relation. Finally, we present numerical results for the heat current.
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We study the statistics of thermal energy transfer in the nonequilibrium (two-bath) spin-boson model. This quantum many-body impurity system serves as a canonical model for quantum energy transport. Our method makes use of the Majorana fermion representation for the spin operators, in combination with the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function approach. We derive an analytical expression for the cumulant generating function of the model in the steady state limit, and show that it satisfies the Gallavotti–Cohen fluctuation symmetry. We obtain analytical expressions for the heat current and its noise, valid beyond the sequential and the co-tunneling regimes. Our results satisfy the quantum mechanical bound for heat current in interacting nanojunctions. Results are compared with other approximate theories, as well as with a non-interacting model, a fully harmonic thermal junction.
We study the transfer of heat in the nonequilibrium spin-boson model with an Ohmic dissipation. In the nonadiabatic limit we derive a formula for the thermal conductance based on a rate equation formalism at the level of the noninteracting blip approximation, valid for temperatures T>T(K), with T(K) as the Kondo temperature. We evaluate this expression analytically assuming either weak or strong couplings, and demonstrate that our results agree with exact relations. Far-from-equilibrium situations are further examined, showing a close correspondence to the linear response limit.
We consider a finite quantum system coupled to quasifree thermal reservoirs at differenttemperatures. Under the assumptions of small coupling and exponential decay of the reservoir correlation function, the large deviation generating function is shown to be analytic on a compact set. Our methodis different from the spectral deformation technique which was introduced recently in the study of spinboson-like models. As a corollary, we derive the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation relation for the entropy production.
We formulate exact generalized nonequilibrium fluctuation relations for the quantum mechanical harmonic oscillator coupled to multiple harmonic baths. Each of the different baths is prepared in its own individual (in general nonthermal) state. Starting from the exact solution for the oscillator dynamics we study fluctuations of the oscillator position as well as of the energy current through the oscillator under general nonequilibrium conditions. In particular, we formulate a fluctuation-dissipation relation for the oscillator position autocorrelation function that generalizes the standard result for the case of a single bath at thermal equilibrium. Moreover, we show that the generating function for the position operator fullfills a generalized Gallavotti-Cohen-like relation. For the energy transfer through the oscillator, we determine the average energy current together with the current fluctuations. Finally, we discuss the generalization of the cumulant generating function for the energy transfer to nonthermal bath preparations.
We investigate the properties of heat conduction in a network of harmonic oscillators interacting with heat baths, described by a generalized model of Brownian motion. This model includes noise and dissipation terms in both the momentum and position equations. This generalization is motivated by the requirement of consistency with the Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad (GKSL) equation. Because standard definitions of heat current based on velocity become mathematically inconsistent in this framework, we derive an analytical expression for the steady-state heat flow based on an extended framework of stochastic energetics. We confirm that Fourier's law (linear thermal response) is satisfied and that the model naturally captures microscopic thermal boundary resistance, analogous to Kapitza resistance. This demonstrates that our generalized model functions as a valid phenomenological framework for simulating non-equilibrium processes, marking a crucial step toward a unified formulation of stochastic and quantum thermodynamics. Furthermore, we analyze the time evolution of heat conduction by numerically solving the corresponding differential equations for the correlation functions. Unlike standard Brownian motion, the generalized model generates continuous and nowhere differentiable trajectories for both momentum and position (as is characteristic of overdamped dynamics). Finally, we show that the heat current exhibits characteristic transient behavior when the inter-particle interaction is switched on. Specifically, an instantaneous heat flow emerges, whose direction is strictly governed by whether the interaction is attractive or repulsive, significantly differing from the predictions of the standard model.