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arXiv:2608.10032

Catalytic Stabilization of Ergotropy and Backflow Suppression in Open Many-Body Quantum Batteries

Liang Luo, Shun-Cai Zhao

quant-phSubmitted Aug 10, 2026• Announced Aug 11, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Aug 19, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Aug 10, 2026v2 · Aug 19, 2026
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Abstract

Coherent energy backflow and non-Markovian oscillations limit energy retention and degrade extractable work (ergotropy) in open many-body quantum batteries. Here, we present a catalyst-mediated charging protocol for a collective spin-array quantum battery coupled to a laser-driven charger. Using the open-system Lindblad master equation, we examine the energy transfer dynamics when both charger and battery are symmetrically coupled to an off-resonant auxiliary catalytic mode. Numerical simulations reveal that while unassisted bipartite setups exhibit pronounced backflow oscillations and poor energy retention, catalytic mediation quenches transient oscillations and accelerates energy injection. The auxiliary system operates as an energy-invariant conduit, maintaining a constant energy expectation value $\langle H_C(t)\rangle \approx \langle H_C(0)\rangle$ and negligible transient population throughout the evolution. Microscopically, virtual excitations of the catalyst generate an effective complex inter-subsystem coupling $J_{\text{eff}}$, which induces an underdamped-to-overdamped dynamical crossover and introduces selective coherence damping. This mechanism prevents population depletion in the battery, stabilizing the population inversion and significantly increasing the asymptotic steady-state ergotropy with increasing battery size $N_B$. These findings clarify the dissipative dynamics of catalyst-mediated energy transfer and provide a practical scheme for improving storage stability in modern quantum hardware platforms.

Comments
11 pages, 5 figures

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Coherent energy backflow and non-Markovian oscillations limit energy retention and degrade extractable work (ergotropy) in open many-body quantum batteries. Here, we present a catalyst-mediated charging protocol for a collective spin-array quantum battery coupled to a laser-driven charger. Using the open-system Lindblad master equation, we examine the energy transfer dynamics when both charger and battery are symmetrically coupled to an off-resonant auxiliary catalytic mode. Numerical simulations reveal that while unassisted bipartite setups exhibit pronounced backflow oscillations and poor energy retention, catalytic mediation quenches transient oscillations and accelerates energy injection. The auxiliary system operates as an energy-invariant conduit, maintaining a constant energy expectation value ⟨HC(t)⟩≈⟨HC(0)⟩\langle H_C(t)\rangle \approx \langle H_C(0)\rangle⟨HC​(t)⟩≈⟨HC​(0)⟩ and negligible transient population throughout the evolution. Microscopically, virtual excitations of the catalyst generate an effective complex inter-subsystem coupling JeffJ_{\text{eff}}Jeff​, which induces an underdamped-to-overdamped dynamical crossover and introduces selective coherence damping. This mechanism prevents population depletion in the battery, stabilizing the population inversion and significantly increasing the asymptotic steady-state ergotropy with increasing battery size NBN_BNB​. These findings clarify the dissipative dynamics of catalyst-mediated energy transfer and provide a practical scheme for improving storage stability in modern quantum hardware platforms.
Environmental dissipation and thermal fluctuations fundamentally constrain the extractable work and long-time stability of open quantum batteries. To mitigate dissipation-induced energy degradation without external driving protocols, we propose a cavity-mediated hybrid quantum battery coupled to an auxiliary coherent qubit. Using the Lindblad master equation and ergotropy analysis, we show that coherent interference between different interaction channels generates a decoherence-free-like invariant subspace that suppresses relaxation-induced energy leakage and stabilizes the steady-state ergotropy. The resulting protection mechanism remains effective under strong dissipation and finite-temperature conditions, indicating that interference-assisted coherent control may provide a feasible strategy for robust quantum energy storage in nonequilibrium open systems.
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We analyze the performance of a quantum battery in terms of energy storage and energy extraction, assisted by nonlinearities in a charger-battery system utilizing an open-system approach. In particular, we consider two types of nonlinearities in the system, viz. nonlinearity in the coupling between battery and charger, and the charger itself comprising an anharmonic oscillator. In both these scenarios, the charger is connected to an environment, and is driven by an external laser source. We derive the Markovian master equation for the dynamics of the combined charger-battery system in presence of the environment. When the charger is non-linearly coupled to a battery, we find an enhancement in the steady state ergotropy over the linearly-coupled case. We further see that the times at which steady state and maximum ergotopies are attained get decreased in presence of non-linear coupling. We also identify instances where no ergotropy is obtained in the linear case, but can be obtained in presence of any non-zero value of nonlinearity. We additionally find a complementarity between the non-linear interaction strength and the coherent-drive strength in the steady-state ergotropy values, i.e. the same ergotropy as that obtained using weak nonlinearity and strong coherent drive can be obtained utilizing an opposite order of their values. In case when the charger is modeled as a multi-level transmon with an inherent anharmonicity, we find an advantage in maximum ergotropy values over the harmonic instance. Unlike the non-linearly coupled batteries, the ones mediated by an anharmonic charger prove to be useful in the transient regime. We also determine values of the coherent drive for which the anharmonic battery is beneficial over the harmonic one at all timescales. Further, we observe a distinct region of the anharmonic strength and coherent drive where ergotropy values reach their maxima.
We investigate a two-qubit quantum battery where coherent charger-battery coupling competes with non-Markovian environmental interactions. By tuning the coupling strengths and detuning, we identify regimes in which environmental memory enhances energy storage and charging power, while strong dissipation suppresses ergotropy by driving the battery into passive states. We show that detuning plays a dual role: reducing dissipation and inducing a phase shift in the memory kernel that controls the interference between coherent energy exchange and environment-induced backflow. As a result, although the stored energy varies smoothly, the extractable work exhibits a discontinuous onset at a critical detuning, signaling a first-order phase transition in ergotropy. The corresponding phase diagram in the coupling-detuning plane reveals a sharp boundary between thermodynamically inactive and work-producing regimes. Our results demonstrate that phase-controlled coherence and non-Markovianity provide a powerful mechanism for optimizing work extraction in open quantum batteries, offering practical strategies for noise-resilient quantum energy storage.