Suppressing coherence effects in quantum-measurement based engines

• Main Authors: Lin, Zhiyuan, Su, Shanhe, Chen, Jingyi, Chen, Jincan, Santos, Jonas F. G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 18-08-2021
• Subjects: Physics - Quantum Physics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2108.07995

The recent advances in the study of thermodynamics of microscopic processes
have driven the search for new developments in energy converters utilizing
quantum effects. We here propose a universal framework to describe the
thermodynamics of a quantum engine fueled by quantum projective measurements.
Standard quantum thermal machines operating in a finite-time regime with a
driven Hamiltonian that does not commute in different times have the
performance decreased by the presence of coherence, which is associated with a
larger entropy production and irreversibility degree. However, we show that
replacing the standard hot thermal reservoir by a projective measurement
operation with general basis in the Bloch sphere and controlling the basis
angles suitably could improve the performance of the quantum engine as well as
decrease the entropy change during the measurement process. Our results go in
direction of a generalization of quantum thermal machine models where the fuel
comes from general sources beyond the standard thermal reservoir.