Related papers: Quantum Coherence Engines
Recent research on the thermodynamic arrow of time, at the microscopic scale, has questioned the universality of its direction. Theoretical studies showed that quantum correlations can be used to revert the natural heat flow (from the hot…
We consider a photo--Carnot engine that consists of a single--mode radiation field in an optical cavity. One the heat reservoirs is made of a beam of thermally entangled pairs of two--level atoms that interact resonantly with the cavity. We…
The possibility of consistency between the basic quantum principles of quantum mechanics and wave function collapse is reexamined. A specific interpretation of environment is proposed for this aim and applied to decoherence. When the…
This paper is a programmatic article presenting an outline of a new view of the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. In short, the proposed foundations are given by the following statements: * Coherent quantum physics…
We present a rigorous analysis of the phenomenon of decoherence for general $N-$level systems coupled to reservoirs. The latter are described by free massless bosonic fields. We apply our general results to the specific cases of the qubit…
Unspeakable coherence is a key feature separating quantum and classical physics. Modelled as asymmetry with respect to a continuous transformation generated by a physically relevant observable, such as the Hamiltonian or angular moment,…
Various quantum systems are considered as the working substance for the analysis of quantum heat cycles and quantum refrigerators. The ongoing technological challenge is how efficiently can a heat engine convert thermal energy to mechanical…
Non-equilibrium physics is a particularly fascinating field of current research. Generically, driven systems are gradually heated up so that quantum effects die out. In contrast, we show that a driven central spin model including controlled…
Elaborating on a previous work by Simon et al. [PRL 85, 1783 (2000)] we propose a realizable quantum optical single-photon experiment using standard present day technology, capable of discriminating maximally between the predictions of…
The hydrodynamic formulation of quantum mechanics is used to elucidate the mechanism for decoherence, the suppression of interference effects in a system evolving from an initial coherent superposition. Analysis of time-dependent trajectory…
Quantum coherence represented by a superposition of energy eigenstates is, together with energy, an important resource for quantum technology and thermodynamics. Energy and quantum coherence however, can be complementary. The increase of…
We show via an explicit example that quantum anomalies can lead to decoherence of a single quantum qubit through phase relaxation. The anomaly causes the Hamiltonian to develop a non-self-adjoint piece due to the non-invariance of the…
Incompatibility between conjugate variables and complementary pictures comes in two kinds, exclusive of one another. The first kind is unconditional, and the second conditional on quantum's indivisibility. We employ this distinction to…
We identify sufficient conditions on the structure of the interaction Hamiltonian between a two-level quantum system and a thermal bath which, without any external drive or coherent measurement, guarantee the generation of steady-state…
We consider a quantum harmonic oscillator coupled with a graviton bath and discuss the loss of coherence in the matter sector due to the matter-graviton vertex interaction. Working in the quantum-field-theory framework, we obtain a master…
The thermodynamics of quantum systems coupled to periodically modulated heat baths and work reservoirs is developed. By identifying affinities and fluxes, the first and second law are formulated consistently. In the linear response regime,…
We study a quantum Stirling cycle which extracts work using quantized energy levels of a potential well. The work and the efficiency of the engine depend on the length of the potential well, and the Carnot efficiency is approached in a low…
We discuss how a background bath of gravitons can induce decoherence of quantum systems. The mechanism is dephasing, the loss of phase coherence due to quantum geometry fluctuations caused by the gravitons. This effect is illustrated in a…
Quantum hardware increasingly relies on energy reserves that can later be converted into useful work; yet, most battery-like proposals demand coherent drives or engineered non-equilibrium resources, limiting practicality in noisy settings.…
Quantum annealing is a promising method for solving combinational optimization problems and performing quantum chemical calculations. The main sources of errors in quantum annealing are the effects of decoherence and non-adiabatic…