Quantum Energy Storage versus Heat-to-Work Conversion in an Interacting Spin System

Abstract

We investigate the energetic and thermodynamic performance of an interacting two-qubit system serving as both a quantum battery and a quantum Otto heat engine. The working medium is described by an anisotropic Heisenberg Hamiltonian supplemented by a dipolar interaction, a symmetric spin--orbit interaction, and an external magnetic field. Within a unified microscopic framework, we first analyze a coherent unitary charging protocol and characterize the resulting energy-storage performance through the ergotropy, anti-ergotropy, charging power, storage capacity, and $\ell_1$-norm of quantum coherence. We investigate the effects of the dipolar interaction, temperature, and magnetic field on these quantities. We then employ the same working medium in a quantum Otto cycle and study the absorbed and released heat, net work, and thermodynamic efficiency as functions of the magnetic-field modulation, dipolar interaction, and temperature bias. A direct comparison between the two protocols reveals a pronounced contrast in their response to the dipolar interaction. In the investigated parameter regime, increasing the dipolar interaction substantially enhances the maximum ergotropy and storage capacity of the quantum battery, whereas the maximum work extracted per Otto cycle decreases. The Otto efficiency exhibits a nonmonotonic dependence on the dipolar interaction while remaining below the Carnot bound. These results demonstrate that an enhancement of quantum energy-storage capability does not necessarily imply an enhancement of heat-to-work conversion. Our findings highlight the complementary nature of quantum batteries and quantum heat engines and show how microscopic spin interactions can be used to control different forms of quantum energy conversion within the same physical platform.