A quantum heat engine with coupled superconducting resonators

Abstract

We propose a quantum heat engine composed of two superconducting transmission line resonators interacting with each other via an optomechanical-like coupling. One resonator is periodically excited by a thermal pump. The incoherently driven resonator induces coherent oscillations in the other one due to the coupling. A limit cycle, indicating finite power output, emerges in the thermodynamical phase space. The system implements an all-electrical analog of a photonic piston. Instead of mechanical motion, the power output is obtained as a coherent electrical charging in our case. We explore the differences between the quantum and classical descriptions of our system by solving the quantum master equation and classical Langevin equations. Specifically, we calculate the mean number of excitations, second-order coherence, as well as the entropy, temperature, power and mean energy to reveal the signatures of quantum behavior in the statistical and thermodynamic properties of the system. We find evidence of a quantum enhancement in the power output of the engine at low temperatures.

15 pages, 14 figures, new references added

References in corpus (24)

• QuTiP 2: A Python framework for the dynamics of open quantum systems
• Sideband Cooling Micromechanical Motion to the Quantum Ground State
• Quantum Thermodynamic Cycles and quantum heat engines
• Fluctuation theorems: Work is not an observable
• Single ion heat engine with maximum efficiency at maximum power
• The second law, Maxwell's daemon and work derivable from quantum heat engines
• Markovian master equations for quantum thermal machines: local vs global approach
• Modeling heat transport through completely positive maps
• Quantum Heat Engine With Multi-Level Quantum Systems
• Testing the validity of the local and global GKLS master equations on an exactly solvable model
• Irreversible work and inner friction in quantum thermodynamic processes
• Otto refrigerator based on a superconducting qubit: classical and quantum performance
• Quantum-Classical Transition of Photon-Carnot Engine Induced by Quantum Decoherence
• Schemes for the observation of photon correlation functions in circuit QED with linear detectors
• Autonomous Quantum Refrigerator in a Circuit-QED Architecture Based on a Josephson Junction
• Quantum correlated heat engine with nonlinear spin-spin interactions
• Driven Spin Systems as Quantum Thermodynamic Machines: Fundamental Limits
• Optomechanical-like coupling between superconducting resonators
• Quantum-to-Classical Transition in Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics
• Theory of an optomechanical quantum heat engine
• Quantum coherence in ultrastrong optomechanics
• The multilevel four-stroke swap engine and its environment
• Speed and Efficiency Limits of Multilevel Incoherent Heat Engines
• One qubit and one photon -- the simplest polaritonic heat engine