A quantum-controlled device may produce a scenario in which two general quantum operations can be performed in such a way that it is not possible to associate a definite order for the operation's application. Such an indefinite causal order can be explored to produce nontrivial effects in quantum thermal devices. We investigate a measurement-powered thermal device that consists of generalized measurement channels with adjustable intensity parameters, where energy is exchanged with the apparatus in the form of work or heat. The measurement-based device can operate as a heat engine, a thermal accelerator, or a refrigerator, according to a measurement intensity setting. By employing a quantum switch of two measurement channels, we explore a thermal device fueled by an indefinite causal order. We also discuss how a coherent control over an indefinite causal order structure can change the operating regimes of the measurement-powered thermal device to produce an advantage when compared to a scenario with an incoherent control of the order switch.
A quantum-controlled device may produce a scenario in which two general quantum operations can be performed in such a way that it is not possible to associate a definite order for the operation's application. Such an indefinite causal order can be explored to produce nontrivial effects in quantum thermal devices. We investigate a measurement-powered thermal device that consists of generalized measurement channels with adjustable intensity parameters, where energy is exchanged with the apparatus in the form of work or heat. The measurement-based device can operate as a heat engine, a thermal accelerator, or a refrigerator, according to a measurement intensity setting. By employing a quantum switch of two measurement channels, we explore a thermal device fueled by an indefinite causal order. We also discuss how a coherent control over an indefinite causal order structure can change the operating regimes of the measurement-powered thermal device to produce an advantage when compared to a scenario with an incoherent control of the order switch.
Indefinite causal order (ICO), in which the order of quantum operations is placed in a coherent superposition, has been demonstrated to enhance various information-processing tasks. Here, we investigate its impact on the thermodynamic processes generated by thermalizing quantum channels. We consider a two-level system interacting with two thermal baths under a quantum SWITCH, with the channel order controlled coherently by an ancillary qubit. We derive closed-form expressions for the effective inverse temperature βf of the postselected system state for both identical and distinct bath temperatures, and identify the control-qubit parameters that maximize heating or cooling. Our analysis reveals how the diagonal and coherent components of the control-qubit state contribute separately to the temperature shift, and how their interplay enables departures from the thermal response attainable under protocols with a definite causal order within the thermodynamic setting considered here. Bath asymmetry enhances these effects, while reduced purity of the control qubit state suppresses them. These results provide a systematic framework for assessing SWITCH-based thermalization in the setting of indefinite causal order, and identify control-qubit coherence as a tunable resource.
In the classical world, physical events always happen in a fixed causal order.However, it was recently revealed that quantum mechanics allows events to occur with indefinite causal order (ICO).In this study, we use an optical quantum switch to experimentally investigate the application of ICO in thermodynamic tasks.Specifically, we simulate the working system interacting with two identical thermal reservoirs in an ICO, observing the quantum heat extraction even though they are in thermal equilibrium where heat extraction is inaccessible by traditional thermal contact.Using such a process, we simulate an ICO refrigeration cycle and investigate its properties.We also show that by passing through the ICO channel multiple times, one can extract more heat per cycle and thus obtain a higher refrigeration performance.Our results suggest that the causal nonseparability can be a powerful resource for quantum thermodynamic tasks.
The release of the causal structure of physical events from a well-defined order to an indefinite order stimulates remarkable enhancements in various quantum information tasks. Some of these advantages, however, are questioned for the ambiguous role of the control system in the quantum switch, which is an experimentally realized process with an indefinite causal structure. In communications, for example, not only the superposition of alternative causal orders, but also the superposition of alternative trajectories can accelerate information transmissions. Here, we follow the proposal of Liu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 230604 (2022)], and examine the information enhancement effect of indefinite causal orders with the toolkit of thermodynamics in a photonic platform. Specifically, we simulate the thermal interaction between a system qubit and two heat baths embedded in a quantum switch by implementing the corresponding switched thermal channels. Although its action on the system qubit only is thermally free, our results suggest that the quantum switch should be seen as a resource when the control qubit is also considered. Moreover, we characterize the non-Markovian property in this scenario by measuring the information backflows from the heat baths to the system qubit.
We investigated quantum thermal machines powered by sequential nonselective generalized measurements, taking a double quantum dot with coherent interdot tunneling as a working substance. In this platform, the competition between detuning and tunneling hybridizes the localized states and modifies the energetic response of the cycle, allowing us to analyze measurement-driven thermodynamics beyond simple diagonal qubit models. We formulate a three-stroke cycle composed of thermalization with a single reservoir and two generalized measurement channels, and derive the corresponding internal-energy and entropy variations in order to identify the operational regimes of the device. Depending on the measurement parameters, the system can operate as a heat engine, accelerator, heater, or refrigerator. We show that the introduction of tunneling not only reshapes the boundaries between these modes, but also generates refrigeration configurations that are absent in the purely detuned model. In addition, the performance maps reveal that temperature, detuning, and tunneling amplitude jointly control the most favorable regions for work extraction and cooling. Our results demonstrate that coherent interdot coupling acts as an important resource for optimizing measurement-powered quantum thermal machines and highlight double quantum dots as a promising setting for experimentally relevant implementations of measurement-assisted thermodynamic devices.
In the standard quantum theory, the causal order of occurrence between events is prescribed, and must be definite. This has been maintained in all conventional scenarios of operation for quantum batteries. In this study we take a step further to allow the charging of quantum batteries in an indefinite causal order (ICO). We propose a nonunitary dynamics-based charging protocol and experimentally investigate this using a photonic quantum switch. Our results demonstrate that both the amount of energy charged and the thermal efficiency can be boosted simultaneously. Moreover, we reveal a counterintuitive effect that a relatively less powerful charger guarantees a charged battery with more energy at a higher efficiency. Through investigation of different charger configurations, we find that ICO protocol can outperform the conventional protocols and gives rise to the anomalous inverse interaction effect. Our findings highlight a fundamental difference between the novelties arising from ICO and other coherently controlled processes, providing new insights into ICO and its potential applications.
Processes with indefinite causal orders (ICOs), such as the quantum switch, are higher-order quantum processes that superpose the order in which quantum operations are performed. Such coherent control yields computational advantages but is not faithfully captured by existing quantum programming languages: either they are restricted to the unitary case, and thus cannot combine ICOs with measurement, or they treat coherent control nonlinearly. In both cases, they do not realize the full computational power of ICOs. We introduce a higher-order quantum functional language that supports general quantum computation, not merely the permutation of channels, and whose linear type system allows quantum control to be well-defined beyond the unitary case, on arbitrary quantum channels. We equip this language with a small-step operational semantics that synchronizes measurement outcomes across superposed branches, using device references and a memory function. We also give a denotational semantics by means of completely positive maps. With linearity as the only constraint, some well-typed terms would denote unphysical maps. We therefore impose a typing discipline that goes beyond linearity, and interpret programs in the causal category Caus[CPM], under which every well-typed program is physically meaningful, a property that can be checked statically and efficiently. We prove soundness, and study the language's expressive power: it can express every quantum channel at first order, and at second order a large subclass of the so-called quantum circuits with quantum control (QC-QCs), containing the quantum switch. Last but not least, we show that this language is well-designed enough to be extended to the nonlinear setting with recursion.