Energetics of quantum correlations

By R. Dillenschneider, Eric Lutz. 2008

213 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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 express the thermodynamic efficiency of the engine in terms of the quantum discord of the atomic pair and find that it can exceed its classical value. Our results show that useful work can be extracted from quantum correlations, indicating that the latter are a valuable resource in quantum thermodynamics.

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

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a1c399a149b63b222d7e9672cef120b2b5256f24

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

Citations in the corpus

Extracting work from correlations (2014, background): “[11] R.”
The classical-quantum boundary for correlations: Discord and related measures (2011, background): “(Dillenschneider and Lutz, 2009) consider the role of correlations in a quantum photo-Carnot engine.”
Thermodynamics of quantum systems under dynamical control (2015, background): “…there has been a growing number of claims that those bounds can be violated at the quantum level (Abah and Lutz, 2014; Boukobza and Ritsch, 2013; Correa et al., 2014; Dillenschneider and Lutz, 2009; Galve and Lutz, 2009; Huang et al., 2012; Roßnagel et al., 2014; Scully, 2001; Scully et al., 2003).”
Quantum thermodynamics (2015, unknown): “For example, the thermodynamic e ﬃ ciency of an engine operating on pairs of correlated atoms can be quantiﬁed in terms of quantum discord and it was shown to exceed the classical e ﬃ ciency value [54].”
Squeezed Thermal Reservoirs as a Resource for a Nanomechanical Engine beyond the Carnot Limit (2017, background): “By employing nonequilibrium reservoirs, it is expected that the efficiency of work generation can surpass standard thermodynamic bounds, as has been theoretically suggested for quantum coherent [12], quantum correlated [13,14], quantum-measurement-induced [15–17], and squeezed thermal reservoirs [18”
Quantum and Information Thermodynamics: A Unifying Framework based on Repeated Interactions (2016, background): “[23,172]—can be analyzed within our framework but will not be considered here for brevity.”
Quantum Fluctuation Theorems for Arbitrary Environments: Adiabatic and Nonadiabatic Entropy Production (2017, background): “They could be of particular relevance since quantum mechanics allows for a richer phenomenology in finite baths [36–38], as well as novel and interesting nonthermal environments such as coherent [39,40], correlated [41], or squeezed [42–45] reservoirs.”