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.
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