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arXiv:2003.01426 · New Journal of Physics

Critical heat current for operating an entanglement engine

Shishir Khandelwal, Nicolas Palazzo, Nicolas Brunner, Géraldine Haack

Published Jun 4, 2020• 46 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Autonomous entanglement engines have recently been proposed to generate steady-state bipartite and multipartite entanglement exploiting only incoherent interactions with thermal baths at different temperatures. In this work, we investigate the interplay between heat current and entanglement in a two-qubit entanglement engine, deriving a critical heat current for successful operation of the engine, i.e. a cut-off above which entanglement is present. The heat current can thus be seen as a witness to the presence of entanglement. In the regime of weak-inter-qubit coupling, we also investigate the effect of two experimentally relevant parameters for the qubits, the energy detuning and tunnelling, on the entanglement production. Finally, we show that the regime of strong inter-qubit coupling provides no clear advantage over the weak regime, in the context of out-of-equilibrium entanglement engines.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/ab9983

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Abstract Autonomous entanglement engines have recently been proposed to generate steady-state bipartite and multipartite entanglement exploiting only incoherent interactions with thermal baths at different temperatures. In this work, we investigate the interplay between heat current and entanglement in a two-qubit entanglement engine, deriving a critical heat current for successful operation of the engine, i.e. a cut-off above which entanglement is present. The heat current can thus be seen as a witness to the presence of entanglement. In the regime of weak-inter-qubit coupling, we also investigate the effect of two experimentally relevant parameters for the qubits, the energy detuning and tunnelling, on the entanglement production. Finally, we show that the regime of strong inter-qubit coupling provides no clear advantage over the weak regime, in the context of out-of-equilibrium entanglement engines.
Autonomous entanglement engines have recently been proposed to generate steady-state bipartite and multipartite entanglement exploiting only incoherent interactions with thermal baths at different temperatures. In this work, we investigate the interplay between heat current and entanglement in a two-qubit entanglement engine, deriving a critical heat current for successful operation of the engine, i.e. a cut-off above which entanglement is present. The heat current can thus be seen as a witness to the presence of entanglement. In the regime of weak-inter qubit coupling, we also investigate the effect of two experimentally relevant parameters for the qubits, the energy detuning and tunnelling, on the entanglement production. Finally, we show that the regime of strong inter-qubit coupling provides no clear advantage over the weak regime, in the context of out-of-equilibrium entanglement engines.
We study the steady-state entanglement and heat current of two coupled qubits, in which two qubits are connected with two independent heat baths (IHBs) or two common heat baths (CHBs). We construct the master equation in the eigenstate representation of two coupled qubits to describe the dynamics of the total system and derive the solutions in the steady-state with stronger coupling regime between two qubits than qubit–baths. We do not make the rotating wave approximation (RWA) for the qubit–qubit interaction, and so we are able to investigate the behaviors of the system in both the strong coupling regime and the weak coupling regime, respectively. In an equilibrium bath, we find that the entanglement decreases with the bath temperature and energy detuning increasing under the strong coupling regime. In the weak coupling regime, the entanglement increases with coupling strength increasing and decreases with the bath temperature and energy detuning increasing. In a nonequilibrium bath, the entanglement without RWA is useful for entanglement at lower temperatures. We also study the heat currents of the two coupled qubits and their variations with the energy detuning, coupling strength and low temperature. In the strong (weak) coupling regime, the heat current increases (decreases) with coupling strength increasing when the temperature of one bath is lower (higher) than the other, and the energy detuning leads to a positive (negative) effect when the temperature is low (high). In the weak coupling regime, the variation trend of heat current is opposite to that of coupling strength for the IHB case and the CHB case.
We discuss a simple quantum thermal machine for the generation of steady-state entanglement between two interacting qubits. The machine is autonomous in the sense that it uses only incoherent interactions with thermal baths, but no source of coherence or external control. By weakly coupling the qubits to thermal baths at different temperatures, inducing a heat current through the system, steady-state entanglement is generated far from thermal equilibrium. Finally, we discuss two possible implementations, using superconducting flux qubits or a semiconductor double quantum dot. Experimental prospects for steady-state entanglement are promising in both systems.
We discuss a simple quantum thermal machine for the generation of steady-state entanglement between two interacting qubits. The machine is autonomous in the sense that it uses only incoherent interactions with thermal baths, but no source of coherence or external control. By weakly coupling the qubits to thermal baths at different temperatures, inducing a heat current through the system, steady-state entanglement is generated far from thermal equilibrium. Finally, we discuss two possible implementations, using superconducting flux qubits or a semiconductor double quantum dot. Experimental prospects for steady-state entanglement are promising in both systems.
Abstract We devise an autonomous quantum thermal machine consisting of three pairwise-interacting qubits, two of which are locally coupled to thermal reservoirs. The machine operates autonomously, as it requires no time-coherent control, external driving or quantum bath engineering, and is instead propelled by a chemical potential bias. Under ideal conditions, we show that this out-of-equilibrium system can deterministically generate a maximally entangled steady-state between two of the qubits, or any desired pure two-qubit entangled state, emerging as a dark state of the system. We study the robustness of entanglement production with respect to several relevant parameters, obtaining nearly-maximally-entangled states well-away from the ideal regime of operation. Furthermore, we show that our machine architecture can be generalised to a configuration with 2n − 1 qubits, in which only a potential bias and two-body interactions are sufficient to generate genuine multipartite maximally entangled steady states in the form of a W state of n qubits.
We consider a system consisting of two interacting qubits that are individually coupled to separate heat baths at different temperatures. The quantum effects in heat transport are investigated in a numerically rigorous manner with a hierarchial equations of motion (HEOM) approach for non-perturbative and non-Markovian system-bath coupling cases under non-equilibrium steady-state conditions. For a weak interqubit interaction, the total system is regarded as two individually thermostatted systems, whereas for a strong interqubit interaction, the two-qubit system is regarded as a single system coupled to two baths. The roles of quantum coherence (or entanglement) between the two qubits (q-q coherence) and between the qubit and bath (q-b coherence) are studied through the heat current calculated for various strengths of the system-bath coupling and interqubit coupling for high and low temperatures. The same current is also studied using the time convolutionless (TCL) Redfield equation and using an expression derived from the Fermi golden rule (FGR). We find that the HEOM results exhibit turnover behavior of the heat current as a function of the system-bath coupling strength for all values of the interqubit coupling strength, while the results obtained with the TCL and FGR approaches do not exhibit such behavior, because they do not possess the capability of treating the q-b and q-q coherences. The maximum current is obtained in the case that the q-q coherence and q-b coherence are balanced in such a manner that coherence of the entire heat transport process is realized. We also find that the heat current does not follow Fourier's law when the temperature difference is very large, due to the non-perturbative system-bath interactions.