Quantum jump approach to microscopic heat engines

Abstract

Modern technologies could soon make it possible to investigate the operation cycles of quantum heat engines by counting the photons that are emitted and absorbed by their working systems. Using the quantum jump approach to open-system dynamics, we show that such experiments would give access to a set of observables that determine the trade-off between power and efficiency in finite-time engine cycles. By analyzing the single-jump statistics of thermodynamic fluxes such as heat and entropy production, we obtain a family of general bounds on the power of microscopic heat engines. Our new bounds unify two earlier results and admit a transparent physical interpretation in terms of single-photon measurements. In addition, these bounds confirm that driving-induced coherence leads to an increase in dissipation that suppresses the efficiency of slowly driven quantum engines in the weak-coupling regime. A nanoscale heat engine based on a superconducting qubit serves as an experimentally relevant example and a guiding paradigm for the development of our theory.

Optimal nonequilibrium thermometry in Markovian environments

“…By monitoring the heat current between the probe and the cold bath at the single-photon level, one is able to keep track of the energy jumps induced on the probe by the sample (the same approach is used in quantum thermodynamics to measure heat and work statistics, see e.g. [60,61]). This provides a simple way of performing the fast measure-and-prepare strategy introduced earlier, in which the cold bath simultaneously prepares and measures the probe.…”

Quantum thermodynamics under continuous monitoring: a general framework

“…Contributions from several groups within the community working in quantum thermodynamics [59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72] generalized and tested the framework in the last 8 years, including extensions to scenarios with feedback control [73][74][75][76][77] , diffusive noise 66,[78][79][80][81] and arbitrary environments 68 . Applications to quantum heat engines [82][83][84] , probing correlations 85,86 and the erasure of information 87,88 have been proposed, as well as the development of experimental proposals for measuring heat and work along individual trajectories [89][90][91][92][93] . Recently, the framework has been also used to obtain generalized versions of the Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relations (TUR) [94][95][96][97] that establish trade-off relations between the fluctuations of observable currents and dissipation-and to develop a Quantum Maringale Theory (QMT) describing the thermodynamics of processes at stopping times (such as first-passage times or escape times) in connection to quantum features 98,…”

Thermodynamic uncertainty relations for coherently driven open quantum systems

“…In this paper, we focus on thermodynamic processes that involve Markovian open quantum systems described in terms of Lindblad master equations [29,30]. Even though several previous works have investigated generalized thermodynamic uncertainty relations in this setting [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39], the behavior of the uncertainty product (1) has not yet been systematically explored. Our goal is thus to determine whether a trade-off between fluctuations and dissipation still holds for these systems and, if so, how much it can be alleviated by quantum effects compared to the original uncertainty relation.…”