We study the effect of correlation on the direction of particle exchange between local thermal sub-systems where the total system is isolated. Our focus is the situation where both sub-systems have the same temperature but different chemical potentials to eliminate the effect of energy transfer due to the temperature difference. The analysis is done in two limits; in the short time scale where the final state of each sub-system is close to its initial thermal state and in a longer time scale where each sub-system's final state can be arbitrary. The results indicate that the conventional flow of particles from a higher chemical potential to a lower one occurs when the correlation which is quantified by mutual information increases. In contrast, an anomalous flow of particles in the reverse direction has a chance to happen when the correlation goes down. Our findings show that the direction of the particle exchange cannot be predetermined by the chemical potential difference in the presence of correlation.
We study the effect of correlation on the direction of particle exchange between local thermal sub-systems where the total system is isolated. Our focus is the situation where both sub-systems have the same temperature but different chemical potentials to eliminate the effect of energy transfer due to the temperature difference. The analysis is done in two limits; in the short time scale where the final state of each sub-system is close to its initial thermal state and in a longer time scale where each sub-system's final state can be arbitrary. The results indicate that the conventional flow of particles from a higher chemical potential to a lower one occurs when the correlation which is quantified by mutual information increases. In contrast, an anomalous flow of particles in the reverse direction has a chance to happen when the correlation goes down. Our findings show that the direction of the particle exchange cannot be predetermined by the chemical potential difference in the presence of correlation.
Heat spontaneously flows from hot to cold in standard thermodynamics. However, the latter theory presupposes the absence of initial correlations between interacting systems. We here experimentally demonstrate the reversal of heat flow for two quantum correlated spins-1/2, initially prepared in local thermal states at different effective temperatures, employing a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance setup. We observe a spontaneous energy flow from the cold to the hot system. This process is enabled by a trade off between correlations and entropy that we quantify with information-theoretical quantities. These results highlight the subtle interplay of quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and information theory. They further provide a mechanism to control heat on the microscale.
Correlated quantum systems can exhibit thermodynamic behaviors that defy classical expectations, with anomalous energy flow (AEF) against temperature gradients serving as a paradigmatic example. While AEF has been shown to arise from the consumption of initial quantum correlations, little is known about whether AEF can occur without correlation depletion, or if analogous anomalous transport exists for conserved quantities---dubbed charges---other than energy. Here, we develop a general global-local thermodynamic approach to describe charge exchange between arbitrary correlated quantum systems. For energy-conserving systems, we analytically rule out AEF in initially uncorrelated states, even with the involvement of quantum catalysts, thereby complementing existing studies. In contrast, in systems with multiple conserved charges, we uncover a mechanism for AEF that requires no initial correlations but is instead induced by a drag effect from normal flows of nonenergy charges. Furthermore, by treating all conserved charges on equal footing, we generalize AEF to a broader concept of anomalous charge flow, applicable to any conserved charge. We confirm theoretical expectations with numerical examples. These findings deepen our understanding of nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics and open new avenues for controlling transport phenomena in correlated quantum systems.
In classical thermodynamics energy always flows from the hotter system to the colder one. However, if these systems are initially correlated, the energy flow can reverse, making the cold system colder and the hot system hotter. This intriguing phenomenon is called "anomalous energy flow" and shows the importance of initial correlations in determining physical properties of thermodynamic systems. Here we investigate the fundamental limits of this effect. Specifically, we find the optimal amount of energy that can be transferred between quantum systems under closed and reversible dynamics, which then allows us to characterize the anomalous energy flow. We then explore a more general scenario where the energy flow is mediated by an ancillary quantum system that acts as a catalyst. We show that this approach allows for exploiting previously inaccessible types of correlations, ultimately resulting in an energy transfer that surpasses our fundamental bound. To demonstrate these findings, we use a well-studied quantum optics setup involving two atoms coupled to an optical cavity.
We consider heat transfer in one-dimensional systems with long-range interactions. It is known that typical short-range interacting systems shows anomalous behavior in heat transport when total momentum is conserved, whereas momentum-nonconserving systems do not exhibit anomaly. In this study, we focus on the effect of long-range interaction. We propose an exactly solvable model that reduces to the so-called momentum-exchange model in the short-range interaction limit. We exactly calculate the asymptotic time decay in the energy current correlation function, which is related to the thermal conductivity via the Green-Kubo formula. From the time decay of the current correlation, we show three qualitatively crucial results. First, the anomalous exponent in the time-decay continuously changes as a function of the index of the long-range interaction. Second, there is a regime where the current correlation diverges with increasing the system size with fixed time, and hence, the exponent of the time decay cannot be defined. Third, even momentum-nonconserving systems can show the anomalous exponent indicating anomalous heat transport. Higher dimensions are also considered, and we found that long-range interaction can induce the anomalous exponent even in three-dimensional systems.
The second law of thermodynamics dictates that heat flows spontaneously from a high-temperature entity to a lower-temperature one. Yet, recent advances have demonstrated that quantum correlations between a system and its thermal environment can induce a reversal of heat flow, challenging classical thermodynamic expectations. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that internal quantum coherence in a multipartite spin system can also reverse heat flow, without relying on initial correlations with the environment. Under the collision model with cascade interaction, we verify that both the strength and the phase of the coherence term determine the direction and magnitude of energy transfer. These results enable precise control of heat flow using only local quantum properties.
Close to equilibrium, the exchange of particles and heat between macroscopic systems at different temperatures and different chemical potentials is known to be governed by a matrix of transport coefficients which are positive and symmetric. We investigate the amounts of heat and particles that are exchanged between two small quantum systems within a given time, and find them characterized by a transport matrix which neither needs to be symmetric nor positive. At larger times even spontaneous transport can be observed in the total absence of temperature and chemical potential differences provided that the two systems are different in size. All these deviations from standard transport behavior can be attributed to the fact that work is done on the system in the processes contacting and separating those parts of the system that initially possess different temperatures and chemical potentials. The standard transport properties are recovered for vanishing work and also in the limit of large systems and sufficiently large contact times. The general results are illustrated by an example.