arXiv · 2310.01938
Dissipation-induced collective advantage of a quantum thermal machine
Abstract
Do quantum correlations lead to better performance with respect to several different systems working independently? For quantum thermal machines, the question is whether a working medium (WM) made of $N$ constituents exhibits better performance than $N$ independent engines working in parallel. Here, by inspecting a microscopic model with the WM composed by two non-interacting quantum harmonic oscillators, we show that the presence of a common environment can mediate non-trivial correlations in the WM leading to better quantum heat engine performance -- maximum power and efficiency -- with respect to an independent configuration. Furthermore, this advantage is striking for strong dissipation, a regime in which two independent engines cannot deliver any useful power. Our results show that dissipation can be exploited as a useful resource for quantum thermal engines, and are corroborated by optimization techniques here extended to non-Markovian quantum heat engines.
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Matteo Carrega, Luca Razzoli, Paolo Andrea Erdman, Fabio Cavaliere, Giuliano Benenti, Maura Sassetti. 2023-10-03. Dissipation-induced collective advantage of a quantum thermal machine. https://doi.org/10.1116/5.0190340
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