English

Experimental test of the Jarzynski equality in a single spin-1 system using high-fidelity single-shot readouts

Quantum Physics 2023-10-26 v1

Abstract

The Jarzynski equality (JE), which connects the equilibrium free energy with non-equilibrium work statistics, plays a crucial role in quantum thermodynamics. Although practical quantum systems are usually multi-level systems, most tests of the JE were executed in two-level systems. A rigorous test of the JE by directly measuring the work distribution of a physical process in a high-dimensional quantum system remains elusive. Here, we report an experimental test of the JE in a single spin-1 system. We realized nondemolition projective measurement of this three-level system via cascading high-fidelity single-shot readouts and directly measured the work distribution utilizing the two-point measurement protocol. The validity of the JE was verified from the non-adiabatic to adiabatic zone and under different effective temperatures. Our work puts the JE on a solid experimental foundation and makes the NV center system a mature toolbox to perform advanced experiments of stochastic quantum thermodynamics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2310.16265,
  title  = {Experimental test of the Jarzynski equality in a single spin-1 system using high-fidelity single-shot readouts},
  author = {Wenquan Liu and Zhibo Niu and Wei Cheng and Xin Li and Chang-Kui Duan and Zhangqi Yin and Xing Rong and Jiangfeng Du},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.16265},
  year   = {2023}
}