English

When is a quantum heat engine quantum?

Quantum Physics 2018-05-31 v1

Abstract

Quantum thermodynamics studies quantum effects in thermal machines. But when is a heat engine, which cyclically interacts with external reservoirs that unavoidably destroy its quantum coherence, really quantum? We here use the Leggett-Garg inequality to assess the nonclassical properties of a single two-level Otto engine. We provide the complete phase diagram characterizing the quantumness of the engine as a function of its parameters and identify three distinct phases. We further derive an explicit expression for the transition temperature.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1508.04128,
  title  = {When is a quantum heat engine quantum?},
  author = {Alexander Friedenberger and Eric Lutz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.04128},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

7 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:35:31.785Z