We consider a model of an optical cavity with a nonequilibrium reservoir consisting of a beam of identical two-level atom pairs (TLAPs) in the general X state. We find that coherence of multiparticle nonequilibrium reservoir plays a central role on the potential work capability of the cavity. We show that no matter whether there are quantum correlations in each TLAP (including quantum entanglement and quantum discord) or not, the coherence of the TLAPs has an effect on the work capability of the cavity. Additionally, constructive and destructive interferences could be induced to influence the work capability of the cavity by adjusting only the relative phase, with which quantum correlations have nothing to do. In this paper, the coherence of the reservoir, rather than the quantum correlations, effectively reflecting the effects of the reservoir on the system's work capability is demonstrated clearly.

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We study a scheme of thermal management where a three-qubit system assisted with a coherent auxiliary bath (CAB) is employed to implement heat management on a target thermal bath (TTB). We consider the CAB/TTB being ensemble of coherent/thermal two-level atoms (TLAs), and within the framework of collision model investigate the characteristics of steady heat current (also called target heat current (THC)) between the system and the TTB. It demonstrates that with the help of the quantum coherence of ancillae the magnitude and direction of heat current can be controlled only by adjusting the coupling strength of system-CAB. Meanwhile, we also show that the influences of quantum coherence of ancillae on the heat current strongly depend on the coupling strength of system—CAB, and the THC becomes positively/negatively correlated with the coherence magnitude of ancillae when the coupling strength below/over some critical value. Besides, the system with the CAB could serve as a multifunctional device integrating the thermal functions of heat amplifier, suppressor, switcher and refrigerator, while with thermal auxiliary bath it can only work as a thermal suppressor. Our work provides a new perspective for the design of multifunctional thermal device utilizing the resource of quantum coherence from the CAB.

For an Otto cycle there always exists a trade-off between the cycle efficiency and the output power due to the requirement of cycle length. The shortcut to adiabatic (STA) technology provides an effective way to deal with the difficulty of zero-output power in conventional Otto cycle. In this paper, the Otto cycle of three-qubit system as the working substance (WS) with counterdiabatic (CD) driving has been investigated. It is demonstrated that the tripartite Otto cycle as a universal machine, in the suitable regimes of external control parameter, could work as a quantum heat engine (QHE), refrigerator or heat pump. And, the performances of QHE and refrigerator with and without STA, such as the power and efficiency of QHE and the coefficient of performance (COP) and figure of merit (FOM)) of refrigerator, have been investigated. It shows the application of STA scheme can lead to an effective enhancement in the performances of Otto cycle, including achievements of a high QHE’s/refrigerator’s power associated with a moderate QHE’s efficiency/COP of refrigerator. Especially, it is interesting that even in a short-time cycle the optimization of control parameters could arise a remarkable improvement in the efficiency (or COP) of STA QHE (refrigerator), approaching the ideal efficiency or COP of conventional Otto cycle with quasi-static process. Finally, with the aid of parameter optimization the trade-off regions between the efficiency and the power (the COP and the FOM) of STA Otto engine (refrigerator) have been advised.

An open quantum battery (QB) model of a single qubit system charging in a coherent auxiliary bath (CAB) consisting of a series of independent coherent ancillae is considered. According to the collision charging protocol we derive a quantum master equation and obtain the analytical solution of QB in a steady state. We find that the full charging capacity (or the maximal extractable work (MEW)) of QB, in the weak QB-ancilla coupling limit, is positively correlated with the coherence magnitude of ancilla. Combining with the numerical simulations we compare with the charging properties of QB at finite coupling strength, such as the MEW, average charging power and the charging efficiency, when considering the bath to be a thermal auxiliary bath (TAB) and a CAB, respectively. We find that when the QB with CAB, in the weak coupling regime, is in fully charging, both its capacity and charging efficiency can go beyond its classical counterpart, and they increase with the increase of coherence magnitude of ancilla. In addition, the MEW of QB in the regime of relative strong coupling and strong coherent magnitude shows the oscillatory behavior with the charging time increasing, and the first peak value can even be larger than the full charging MEW of QB. This also leads to a much larger average charging power than that of QB with TAB in a short-time charging process. These features suggest that with the help of quantum coherence of CAB it becomes feasible to switch the charging schemes between the long-time slow charging protocol with large capacity and high efficiency and the short-time rapid charging protocol with highly charging power only by adjusting the coupling strength of QB-ancilla. This work clearly demonstrates that the quantum coherence of bath can not only serve as the role of “fuel” of QB to be utilized to improve the QB’s charging performance but also provide an alternative way to integrate the different charging protocols into a single QB.