English

Thermodynamic modes of a quasiperiodic mobility-edge system in a quantum Otto cycle

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks 2026-02-10 v1

Abstract

We investigate thermodynamic operation of a quasiperiodic lattice with an exact mobility edge, described by the Biddle--Das Sarma model. We use this model as the working medium of a quantum Otto cycle and map its operating mode as a function of the hopping-range parameter pp, the initial and final potential strengths ViV_i and VfV_f, and two idealized protocols for the isolated strokes. In a near-adiabatic (state-frozen) protocol, where the density matrix is approximately unchanged during the isolated strokes, the cycle supports only two modes: a \emph{heater} and an \emph{accelerator}. In an adiabatic protocol, where level populations are preserved while the spectrum is deformed, two additional modes appear: a \emph{heat engine} and a \emph{refrigerator}. Our results show that mobility-edge systems can realize multiple thermodynamic functions within a single platform and provide guidance for switching between modes by tuning pp, ViV_i, and VfV_f.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.08378,
  title  = {Thermodynamic modes of a quasiperiodic mobility-edge system in a quantum Otto cycle},
  author = {Ao Zhou and Shujie Cheng and Gao Xianlong},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.08378},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

6 pages, 6 figures