Testing Time Reversal Symmetry in Artificial Atoms

Abstract

Over the past several decades, a rich series of experiments has repeatedly verified the quantum nature of superconducting devices, leading some of these systems to be regarded as artificial atoms. In addition to their application in quantum information processing, these `atoms' provide a test bed for studying quantum mechanics in macroscopic limits. Regarding the last point, we present here a feasible protocol for directly testing time reversal symmetry through the verification of the microreversibility principle in a superconducting artificial atom. Time reversal symmetry is a fundamental property of quantum mechanics and is expected to hold if the dynamics of the artificial atom strictly follow the Schrödinger equation. However, this property has yet to be tested in any macroscopic quantum system. In the end, as an application of this work, we outline how the successful implementation of the protocol would provide the first verification of the quantum work fluctuation theorems with superconducting systems.

V1: 6 pages, 3 figures and 1 table. V2: extended version. 11 pages, 4 figures and 1 table. New appendix about time reversal operator added. To appear in "Focus issues: Quantum Thermodynamics" by NJP

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