Quantum transport efficiency and Fourier's law
Quantum Physics
2012-12-20 v2 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
Abstract
We analyze the steady-state energy transfer in a chain of coupled two-level systems connecting two thermal reservoirs. Through an analytic treatment we find that the energy current is independent of the system size, hence violating Fourier's law of heat conduction. The classical diffusive behavior in Fourier's law of heat conduction can be recovered by introducing decoherence to the quantum systems constituting the chain. Implications of these results on energy transfer in biological light harvesting systems, and the role of quantum coherences and entanglement are discussed.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1112.2839,
title = {Quantum transport efficiency and Fourier's law},
author = {Daniel Manzano and Markus Tiersch and Ali Asadian and Hans J. Briegel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1112.2839},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures