Autonomous quantum clocks: how thermodynamics limits our ability to measure time

By P. Erker, M. Mitchison, Ralph Silva, M. P. Woods, Nicolas Brunner, Marcus Huber. 2016

155 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We discuss the fundamental limitations and resources for measuring time. A prerequisite for any system to function as a clock is it being out of equilibrium. We thus introduce the concept of autonomous quantum clocks using only the minimal out-of-equilibrium resources, i.e. two thermal baths at different temperatures. We find a fundamental trade-off between the amount of heat dissipated and the performance of the clock in terms of accuracy and resolution. We present both universal arguments as well as a detailed simulation illustrating these behaviors. This shows that the amount of entropy increase according to the second law is a resource for timekeeping.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/86781fd7260669675557c36af9a8d96abe279ced

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In Artificial Intelligence

  1. Steve Campbell
  2. Sebastian Deffner

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

  1. Steve Campbell
  2. Sebastian Deffner

In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

  1. Steve Campbell
  2. Sebastian Deffner

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