Lamb-shift-mediated energy transfer in open quantum batteries

Abstract

Open quantum batteries (QBs) operate under unavoidable system--environment interactions, where both dissipation and coherent frequency renormalization can affect their dynamics. While dissipative effects have been extensively studied, the role of environment-induced frequency shifts, such as the Lamb shift, remains less explored. Here, we investigate a driven open QB consisting of two coherently coupled quantum harmonic oscillators representing the charger and the battery. By incorporating dissipation and Lamb-shift corrections within a Lindblad master equation, we show that the Lamb shift renormalizes the system eigenfrequencies and modifies the resonance condition with the external drive. We further demonstrate that the resulting frequency renormalization leads to a mode-selective energy-transfer process, producing a redistribution of energy between the charger and the battery. This behavior is characterized through a supermode decomposition of the coupled system, which reveals how the environment-induced frequency shift alters the dominant energy-transfer channel. Our results clarify the role of coherent environmental effects in open quantum batteries and provide a physical framework for understanding work-extraction dynamics beyond purely dissipative descriptions.

9 pages, 4 figures