Bonn 2025 – scientific programme

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QI: Fachverband Quanteninformation

QI 38: Quantum Thermodynamics

QI 38.1: Talk

Friday, March 14, 2025, 11:00–11:15, HS IX

Understanding System-Meter Correlation Time in Quantum Information Engines — •Rasmus Hagman, Janine Splettstösser, and Henning Kirchberg — Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Chalmers University of Technology, S-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden

We examine a quantum information engine (QIE) with a finite cycle time, operating between two thermal reservoirs. The engine utilizes information transfer between a working system, modeled as a quantum two-level system, and a meter, modeled as a quantum harmonic oscillator, to convert heat into work.The time-dependent information transfer is linked to the correlation time between the system and meter, which is a crucial resource for the QIE, as the cycle time is lower bounded by this correlation time. Our study accounts for the energetic costs of quantum measurement and the information acquisition process in a comprehensive framework that includes finite-time operations. In this framework, the QIE can reach a Zeno limit at very short correlation times, enabling the extraction of net positive work from a single heat bath where the acquired information needs to be considered to fulfill the second law. We also analyze work and heat as functions of the system's and meter's temperatures, and find that the QIE work in different regimes: as heat engine, heat pump or refrigerator, as well as a "true" information engine, producing net positive work by extracting heat from the colder bath. We optimize power output at given efficiency by analyzing Pareto fronts. Our QIE model could be tested in cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments for empirical validation.

Keywords: information; zeno; measurement; correlation time; engine