Charging a quantum battery through a pumped charger can lock a substantial part of its stored energy inside the bipartite correlations that grow between the constituent cells, and this \emph{correlation ergotropy}, being the energy that no local single-cell operation can reach and that only collective operations can recover, is the object of the present study. Following the charging trajectory of two coupled three-level cells, we find that the correlation ergotropy closely tracks the logarithmic negativity, which shows that the locked energy is carried by genuine bipartite entanglement rather than by coherent collective dynamics alone, and that an equal-strength coherent non-entangling drive produces no such locking at all. For a pure two-cell battery we establish an exact, basis-independent closed form in which the locked energy depends only on the sorted eigenvalues of the reduced cell and the cell energy levels, revealing that the locked fraction rises from zero at the separable corners of the Schmidt simplex to unity at the symmetric maximally entangled state and remains invariant under local unitaries. Decoherence and dephasing, which destroy the correlations, do \emph{not} release this energy but erase it, so extraction must be collective and must take place while the correlations persist, while cold damping leaves the effect intact and thermal occupation suppresses it. These results give a resource-theoretic reading of correlations in quantum batteries, sharpen the line between genuine entanglement and coherent collective dynamics, and point to experimentally accessible conditions for correlated-charge and collective-extraction protocols.
Charging a quantum battery through a pumped charger can lock a substantial part of its stored energy inside the bipartite correlations that grow between the constituent cells, and this \emph{correlation ergotropy}, being the energy that no local single-cell operation can reach and that only collective operations can recover, is the object of the present study. Following the charging trajectory of two coupled three-level cells, we find that the correlation ergotropy closely tracks the logarithmic negativity, which shows that the locked energy is carried by genuine bipartite entanglement rather than by coherent collective dynamics alone, and that an equal-strength coherent non-entangling drive produces no such locking at all. For a pure two-cell battery we establish an exact, basis-independent closed form in which the locked energy depends only on the sorted eigenvalues of the reduced cell and the cell energy levels, revealing that the locked fraction rises from zero at the separable corners of the Schmidt simplex to unity at the symmetric maximally entangled state and remains invariant under local unitaries. Decoherence and dephasing, which destroy the correlations, do \emph{not} release this energy but erase it, so extraction must be collective and must take place while the correlations persist, while cold damping leaves the effect intact and thermal occupation suppresses it. These results give a resource-theoretic reading of correlations in quantum batteries, sharpen the line between genuine entanglement and coherent collective dynamics, and point to experimentally accessible conditions for correlated-charge and collective-extraction protocols.
Going beyond isolated system dynamics, we examine how local and spatially correlated reservoirs influence the work extraction in quantum batteries. By employing a one-dimensional spin-1/2 model coupled to baths via dephasing and amplitude-damping noise, we demonstrate that correlations in reservoirs can significantly enhance battery's performance compared to local noise. In the dephasing scenario, we prove that correlated reservoirs produce a finite amount of extractable work, or ergotropy, during the transient regime when a two-cell battery is initialized in a product state while local noise yields vanishing ergotropy at all times, despite nonvanishing stored energy in both cases. Numerical simulations confirm that this advantage persists across larger system sizes and for both entangled and product initial states. We also find that the dynamics of quantum coherence closely mirror those of ergotropy, highlighting coherence as a key resource underlying the enhanced performance of quantum batteries. Further, we observe that the fraction of stored energy extracted from quantum batteries displays a sharper contrast between the correlated and local reservoirs. Moreover, for dephasing noise, this fraction remains independent of system size, whereas in the amplitude damping case, it exhibits a clear system-size dependence within the transient regime, highlighting distinct operational behaviors under different noise models. In addition, we reveal that when the battery dynamics is governed by an effective Hamiltonian with long-range interactions, it yields higher ergotropy compared to short-range interactions, emphasizing the advantages of reservoir engineering for efficient device design.
Ergotropic-gap relations provide thermodynamic witnesses of quantum correlations, but a direct dynamical connection between extractable work and entanglement remains largely unexplored in multipartite non-Gaussian bosonic systems. Here, we establish such a connection for a bosonic quantum battery driven by a coherent-state superposition. Despite the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, the dynamics retains a simple structure that allows the relevant work and correlation measures to be obtained exactly. We show that the loss of extractable work associated with the passive part of the battery energy is directly determined by charger-battery entanglement. This relation also separates the charging power into contributions from energy transfer and from changes in the battery spectrum. At the same time, multipartite correlations are progressively redistributed from charger-involving correlations to correlations internal to the battery. For a symmetric resonant protocol, complete energy transfer coincides with charger-battery disentanglement and fully extractable stored energy, while multipartite correlations within the battery are maximal. Individual cells, however, remain mixed, revealing a distinction between global and local work extraction. We further show that, in the regime considered, locally extractable work is entirely supported by energetic coherence. Under single-photon loss, the analytical structure survives, but environmental correlations separate charger disentanglement from maximal work extraction.
A solvable charger--battery model is introduced in which quantum coherence controls both where a quantum battery's charge is stored and how robustly it survives noise. Charging converts the charger's coherence into charger--battery entanglement and splits the deposited work between a locally extractable part and a correlation-locked part accessible only through joint operations; for a qubit, the split obeys an exact complementarity, and at maximal coherence, the battery is locally passive with the entire charge locked in correlations. Robustness follows local accessibility: the stored energy and locally extractable work are population-based, immune to pure dephasing, and limited only by relaxation, with an energy half-life, whereas the correlation-locked work is fragile to both dephasing and relaxation. Dephasing, global and local depolarization, and amplitude damping are treated through a single gain--loss competition algebra, and the resulting storage lifetimes are made concrete with superconducting-transmon parameters.
In this work, we investigate the autonomous charging process of a quantum battery coupled to a structured reservoir composed of two qubits, each locally coupled to its own bosonic thermal bath. Moreover, the reservoir interacts with a charger-battery architecture through three configurations: (I) direct coupling between reservoir qubits and battery; (II) collective coupling among the reservoir qubits, charger, and battery; and (III) a collective coupling between the reservoir qubits and charger together with a local charger-battery interaction. However, by using incoherent and coherent initial states, we analyze the stored energy, ergotropy, and charging power of the battery, and derive upper and lower bounds on the extractable work in terms of the free energy of coherence and the correlations exchanged between subsystems. Our results show that global and local coherences, as well as total correlations, act as quantum resources that enhance autonomous charging. Additionally, we demonstrate that the free energy stored in the quantum battery splits into contributions from coherence and correlations, providing numerical evidence that supports the derived ergotropy bounds. Importantly, this work highlights how structured reservoirs enable autonomous and resource-enhanced quantum battery operation.
We propose a simple realization of an open quantum battery powered by local dephasing. The setup consists of a triple-quantum-dot chain coupled at one end to a thermal reservoir, with the dot at the opposite end strongly detuned to form a high-energy storage element. Local dephasing populates this highly excited state and autonomously drives the system into a nonequilibrium steady state with high ergotropic efficiency. We find a limit where the ergotropic efficiency approaches unity, while the ergotropy itself approaches one-third of the energy detuning. We characterize the battery through its energy-storage performance, charging time, and stability, showing that the charged state remains long-lived after the dephasing source is switched off. We then demonstrate two complementary protocols for extracting the stored energy. First, nearly all the available ergotropy can be recovered through a simple cyclic unitary protocol involving only modulation of the detuned-dot gate. Second, coupling the detuned dot to an electronic load allows the extraction of electrochemical work exceeding the initial ergotropy, thereby accessing part of the battery's passive energy. Our results establish local dephasing as an autonomous resource for charging open quantum batteries and demonstrate simple routes for extracting the resulting stored energy in experimentally accessible mesoscopic platforms.
ABSTRACT A solvable charger–battery model is introduced in which quantum coherence controls both where a quantum battery's charge is stored and how robustly it survives noise. Charging converts the charger's coherence into charger–battery entanglement and splits the deposited work between a locally extractable part and a correlation‐locked part accessible only through joint operations; for a qubit, the split obeys an exact complementarity, and at maximal coherence, the battery is locally passive with the entire charge locked in correlations. Robustness follows local accessibility: the stored energy and locally extractable work are population‐based, immune to pure dephasing, and limited only by relaxation, with an energy half‐life, whereas the correlation‐locked work is fragile to both dephasing and relaxation. Dephasing, global and local depolarization, and amplitude damping are treated through a single gain–loss competition algebra, and the resulting storage lifetimes are made concrete with superconducting‐transmon parameters.