When is a quantum heat engine quantum?

Abstract

Quantum thermodynamics studies quantum effects in thermal machines. But when is a heat engine, which cyclically interacts with external reservoirs that unavoidably destroy its quantum coherence, really quantum? We here use the Leggett-Garg inequality to assess the nonclassical properties of a single two-level Otto engine. We provide the complete phase diagram characterizing the quantumness of the engine as a function of its parameters and identify three distinct phases. We further derive an explicit expression for the transition temperature.

7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (12)

• A single-atom heat engine
• Single ion heat engine with maximum efficiency at maximum power
• The quantum harmonic Otto cycle
• Witnessing Quantum Coherence: from solid-state to biological systems
• Quantum Optomechanical Heat Engine
• An all-optical nanomechanical heat engine
• Performance of superadiabatic quantum machines
• A scattering quantum circuit for measuring Bell's time inequality: a nuclear magnetic resonance demonstration using maximally mixed states
• Quantum Otto cycle with inner friction: finite-time and disorder effects
• Assessing the quantumness of a damped two-level system
• How to test the "quantumness" of a quantum computer?
• Dominating Scale-Free Networks Using Generalized Probabilistic Methods

Cited by in corpus (25)

• Experimental demonstration of quantum effects in the operation of microscopic heat engines
• Quantum thermodynamic devices: from theoretical proposals to experimental reality
• Cooperative many-body enhancement of quantum thermal machine power
• Bosons Outperform Fermions -- The Thermodynamic Advantage of Symmetry
• Many-body quantum thermal machines
• Boosting engine performance with Bose-Einstein condensation
• The Ising critical quantum Otto engine
• Steering heat engines: a truly quantum Maxwell demon
• Quantum heat engine with long-range advantages
• Effects of noise-induced coherence on the performance of quantum absorption refrigerators
• Non-Markovian effect on quantum Otto engine: -Role of system--reservoir interaction-
• Otto Engine: Classical and Quantum Approach
• Quantum Heat Engines with Singular Interactions
• Detecting violations of macrorealism when the original Leggett-Garg inequalities are satisfied
• Classical emulation of quantum-coherent thermal machines
• Quantum jump approach to microscopic heat engines
• Quantum heat engine with a quadratically coupled optomechanical system
• Quantum memory enhanced dissipative entanglement creation in non-equilibrium steady states
• Performance of quantum heat engines under the influence of long-range interactions
• Quantum features and signatures of quantum-thermal machines
• Model-free optimization of power/efficiency tradeoffs in quantum thermal machines using reinforcement learning
• A quantum Stirling heat engine operating in finite time
• Bargmann representation of quantum absorption refrigerators
• Efficiency and thermodynamic uncertainty relations of a dynamical quantum heat engine
• Quantum Otto engines at relativistic energies