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arXiv:2607.22990

Phonon heat transport with squeezing-based symmetry breaking

Yan Cao, Cheng Yang, Xintong Gu, Shenzhu Wang, Jiteng Sheng, Haibin Wu

physics.opticsquant-phSubmitted Jul 25, 2026• Announced Jul 28, 2026
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The controllability of phonon thermal transport is fundamental for numerous technologies, from cooling high-performance chips to managing heat in quantum computing. Despite extensive efforts, on-demand, real-time control of phonon heat flow remains elusive, being fundamentally constrained by the temperature gradient. Here we achieve this long-sought phonon heat transport by introducing a novel mechanism using quantum squeezing in a cavity optomechanical system. We find that phonon squeezing of near-ground-state mechanical resonators via an optomechanically induced parametric process breaks the continuous U(1) rotation symmetry in phase space, and consequently the symmetry in the heat current structure. We reveal that heat flow under a constant temperature gradient can be deterministically amplified, reduced, or even reversed, a capability previously unattainable. With phonon squeezing, we achieve over twentyfold amplification of heat flow and reversal within 30 milliseconds. Importantly, quantum discord analysis reveals a direct connection between heat flow reversal and quantum correlation. Our results establish quantum squeezing as a versatile platform for on-demand phononic thermal control, opening avenues for active heat management in quantum devices and thermal logic circuits.

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The controllability of phonon thermal transport is fundamental for numerous technologies, from cooling high-performance chips to managing heat in quantum computing. Despite extensive efforts, on-demand, real-time control of phonon heat flow remains elusive, being fundamentally constrained by the temperature gradient. Here we achieve this long-sought phonon heat transport by introducing a novel mechanism using quantum squeezing in a cavity optomechanical system. We find that phonon squeezing of near-ground-state mechanical resonators via an optomechanically induced parametric process breaks the continuous U(1) rotation symmetry in phase space, and consequently the symmetry in the heat current structure. We reveal that heat flow under a constant temperature gradient can be deterministically amplified, reduced, or even reversed, a capability previously unattainable. With phonon squeezing, we achieve over twentyfold amplification of heat flow and reversal within 30 milliseconds. Importantly, quantum discord analysis reveals a direct connection between heat flow reversal and quantum correlation. Our results establish quantum squeezing as a versatile platform for on-demand phononic thermal control, opening avenues for active heat management in quantum devices and thermal logic circuits.
We theoretically study a multimode nonequilibrium optomechanical system coupled to squeezed-vacuum and thermal reservoirs, focusing on the interplay between quantum coherence, dissipation, and heat transport. Using covariance-matrix methods, we analyze bipartite entanglement, EPR steering, and energy currents in the steady state. We show that weak optomechanical coupling preserves squeezing-induced entanglement, whereas strong coupling enhances phonon-mediated decoherence and suppresses quantum correlations. The system exhibits one-way quantum steering, indicating directional quantum information transfer. We further demonstrate that reservoir squeezing acts as a nonclassical energy source that sustains nonequilibrium heat flow, while substrate-mediated phonon correlations generate geometry-dependent thermal rectification controlled by the separation between mechanical resonators. Interference between transport pathways can strongly suppress heat currents, analogous to dark-state effects in quantum optics. These findings provide a unified framework linking squeezing, entanglement, steering, and heat transport, with potential applications in quantum thermal devices, phononic routing, and heat-resilient quantum technologies.
Quantum squeezing, as a typical quantum effect, is an important resource for many applications in quantum technologies. Here we propose a scheme for generating quantum squeezing, including the ponderomotive squeezing and the mechanical squeezing, in an optomechanical system, in which the radiation-pressure coupling and the mechanical spring constant are modulated periodically. In this system, the radiation-pressure interaction can be enhanced remarkably by the modulation-induced mechanical parametric amplification. Moreover, the effective phonon noise can be suppressed completely by introducing a squeezed vacuum reservoir. This ultimately leads to that our scheme can achieve a controllable quantum squeezing. Numerical calculations show that our scheme is experimentally realizable with current technologies.
Abstract We investigate single-photon transmission and the statistical properties of photon correlations in χ ( 2 ) microring optomechanical systems, where optical nonreciprocity is induced by directional quantum squeezing. Due to the presence of thermal phonons in the mechanical resonator, the system is highly sensitive to temperature changes. Our numerical simulations show that as the thermal phonons vary from 0 to 10, the isolation ratio of single-photon transmission decreases from 22.2 dB to 1.1 dB (or from −23 dB to −3.3 dB). Additionally, the statistical properties of photon correlations transition from exhibiting a strong bunching effect to a weak bunching effect. Moreover, the parametric amplification component enhances the device’s temperature response, distinguishing it from other similar nonreciprocal devices. Our protocol suggests a potential application for nonreciprocal setups in precise temperature measurement at ultralow temperatures, thereby enriching quantum networks and quantum information processing.
Quantum squeezing is an important resource in modern quantum technologies, such as quantum precision measurement and continuous-variable quantum information processing. The generation of squeezed states of mechanical modes is a significant task in cavity optomechanics. Motivated by recent interest in multimode optomechanics, it becomes an interesting topic to create quadrature squeezing in multiple mechanical resonators. However, in the multiple-degenerate-mechanical-mode optomechanical systems, the dark-mode effect strongly suppresses the quantum effects in mechanical modes. Here we study the generation of mechanical squeezing in a two-mechanical-mode optomechanical system by breaking the dark-mode effect with the synthetic-gauge-field method. We find that, when the mechanical modes work at a finite temperature, the mechanical squeezing is weak or even disappears due to the dark-mode effect, while the strong mechanical squeezing can be generated once the dark-mode effect is broken. In particular, the thermal-phonon-occupation tolerance of the mechanical squeezing is approximately three orders of magnitude larger than that without breaking the dark-mode effect. We also generalize this method to break the dark modes and to create the mechanical squeezing in multiple-mechanical-mode optomechanical systems. Our results describe a general physical mechanism and pave the way towards the generation of noise-resistant quantum resources.
We report an efficient mechanism to generate a squeezed state of a mechanical mirror in an optomechanical system. We use an especially tuned parametric amplifier (PA) inside the cavity and the parametric photon phonon processes to transfer quantum squeezing from photons to phonons with almost 100% efficiency. We get 50% squeezing of the mechanical mirror which is limited by the PA. We present analytical results for the mechanical squeezing thus enabling one to understand the dependence of squeezing on system parameters like gain of PA, cooperativity, and temperature. As in cooling experiments the detrimental effects of mirror's Brownian and zero point noises are strongly suppressed by the pumping power. By judicious choice of the phases, the cavity output is squeezed only if the mirror is squeezed thus providing us a direct measure of the mirror's squeezing. Further considerable larger squeezing of the mirror can be obtained by adding the known feedback techniques.
The preparation of mechanical quadrature-squeezed states holds significant importance in cavity optomechanics because the squeezed states have extensive applications in understanding fundamental quantum mechanics and exploiting modern quantum technology. Here, we propose a reliable scheme for generating mechanical quadrature squeezing in a typical cavity optomechanical system via seeking optimal cavity-field driving pulses using the gradient-descent algorithm. We realize strong quadrature squeezing in a mechanical resonator that exceeds the 3-dB steady-state limit, even with a thermal phonon occupancy of 100. Furthermore, the mechanical squeezing can be ultrarapidly created within one mechanical oscillation period. We also obtain the optimal pulsed drivings associated with the created mechanical squeezings and analyze the mechanism for mechanical squeezing generation. This paper will promote the application of optimal quantum control in quantum optics and quantum information science.