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Jin-Fu Chen

Publications and source records attributed to Jin-Fu Chen.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Quantum-classical correspondence principle for heat distribution in quantum Brownian motion

Quantum Brownian motion, described by the Caldeira-Leggett model, brings insights to understand phenomena and essence of quantum thermodynamics, especially the quantum work and heat associated with their classical counterparts. By employing the phase-space formulation approach, we study the heat distribution of a relaxation process in the quantum Brownian motion model. The analytical result of the characteristic function of heat is obtained at any relaxation time with an arbitrary friction coefficient. By taking the classical limit, such a result approaches the heat distribution of the classical Brownian motion described by the Langevin equation, indicating the quantum-classical correspondence principle for heat distribution. We also demonstrate that the fluctuating heat at any relaxation time satisfies the exchange fluctuation theorem of heat, and its long-time limit reflects complete thermalization of the system. Our research brings justification for the definition of the quantum fluctuating heat via two-point measurements.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Geodesic path for the minimal energy cost in shortcuts to isothermality

Shortcut to isothermality is a driving strategy to steer the system to its equilibrium states within finite time, and enables evaluating the impact of a control promptly. Finding optimal scheme to minimize the energy cost is of critical importance in applications of this strategy in pharmaceutical drug test, biological selection, and quantum computation. We prove the equivalence between designing the optimal scheme and finding the geodesic path in the space of control parameters. Such equivalence allows a systematic and universal approach to find the optimal control to reduce the energy cost. We demonstrate the current method with examples of a Brownian particle trapped in controllable harmonic potentials.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

A microscopic theory of Curzon-Ahlborn heat engine

Abstract The Curzon-Ahlborn (CA) efficiency, as the efficiency at the maximum power (EMP) of the endoreversible Carnot engine, has a significant impact on finite-time thermodynamics. However, the CA engine model is based on many assumptions. In the past few decades, although a lot of efforts have been made, a microscopic theory of the CA engine is still lacking. By adopting the method of the stochastic differential equation of energy, we formulate a microscopic theory of the CA engine realized with an underdamped Brownian particle in a class of non-harmonic potentials. This theory gives microscopic interpretation of all assumptions made by Curzon and Ahlborn, and thus puts the results about CA engine on a solid foundation. Also, based on this theory, we obtain analytical expressions of the power and the efficiency statistics for the Brownian CA engine. Our research brings new perspectives to experimental studies of finite-time microscopic heat engines featured with fluctuations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Efficiency statistics of a quantum Otto cycle

The stochastic efficiency [G. Verley et al., Nat. Commun. 5, 4721 (2014)] was introduced to evaluate the performance of energy-conversion machines in micro-scale. However, such an efficiency generally diverges when no heat is absorbed while work is produced in a thermodynamic cycle. As a result, any statistical moments of the efficiency do not exist. In this study, we come up with a different version of the definition for the stochastic efficiency which is always finite. Its mean value is equal to the conventional efficiency, and higher moments characterize the fluctuations of the cycle. In addition, the fluctuation theorems are re-expressed via the efficiency. For working substance satisfying the equipartition theorem, we clarify that the thermodynamic uncertainty relation for efficiency is valid in an Otto engine. To demonstrate our general discussions, the efficiency statistics of a quantum harmonic-oscillator Otto engine is systematically investigated. The probability that the stochastic efficiency surpasses the Carnot efficiency is explicitly obtained. This work may shed new insight for optimizing micro-machines with fluctuations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Hierarchical Coarse-grained Approach to the Duration-dependent Spreading Dynamics in Complex Networks

Various coarse-grained models have been proposed to study the spreading dynamics in the network. A microscopic theory is needed to connect the spreading dynamics with the individual behaviors. In this letter, we unify the description of different spreading dynamics on complex networks by decomposing the microscopic dynamics into two basic processes, the aging process and the contact process. A microscopic dynamical equation is derived to describe the dynamics of individual nodes on the network. The hierarchy of a duration coarse-grained (DCG) approach is obtained to study duration-dependent processes, where the transition rates depend on the duration of an individual node on a state. Applied to the epidemic spreading, such formalism is feasible to reproduce different epidemic models, e.g., the susceptible-infected-recovered and the susceptible-infected-susceptible models, and to associate with the corresponding macroscopic spreading parameters with the microscopic transition rate. The DCG approach enables us to obtain the steady state of the general SIS model with arbitrary duration-dependent recovery and infection rates. The current hierarchical formalism can also be used to describe the spreading of information and public opinions, or to model a reliability theory in networks.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Extrapolating the thermodynamic length with finite-time measurements

The excess work performed in a heat-engine process with given finite operation time τis bounded by the thermodynamic length, which measures the distance during the relaxation along a path in the space of the thermodynamic state. Unfortunately, the thermodynamic length, as a guidance for the heat engine optimization, is beyond the experimental measurement. We propose to measure the thermodynamic length \mathcal{L} through the extrapolation of finite-time measurements \mathcal{L}(τ)=\int_{0}^τ[P_{\mathrm{ex}}(t)]^{1/2}dt via the excess power P_{\mathrm{ex}}(t). The current proposal allows to measure the thermodynamic length for a single control parameter without requiring extra effort to find the optimal control scheme. We illustrate the measurement strategy via examples of the quantum harmonic oscillator with tuning frequency and the classical ideal gas with changing volume.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Simulating finite-time quantum isothermal processes with generic superconducting quantum circuit

The finite-time isothermal process is fundamental in quantum thermodynamics yet complicated with combination of changing control parameters and the interaction with the thermal bath. Such complexity prevents the direct application of the traditional thermodynamics measurement of the relevant quantities. In this paper, we provide a discrete-step method to separate the work done and the heat exchange in the isothermal process by decomposing the process into piecewise adiabatic and isochoric processes. The piecewise control scheme makes it possible to simulate the whole process on a generic quantum computer, which provides a new platform to experimentally study quantum thermodynamics. We implement the simulation on ibmqx2 to show the $\mathrm{\mathcal{C}/τ}$ scaling of the extra work in the finite-time isothermal process.

quant-ph↗

Achieve Higher Efficiency at Maximum Power with Finite-time Quantum Otto Cycle

The optimization of finite-time thermodynamic heat engines was intensively explored recently, yet limited to few cycles, e.g. finite-time Carnot-like cycle. In this paper, we supplement a new type of finite-time engine with quantum Otto cycle and show the better performance. The current model can be widely utilized benefited from the general \mathcal{C}/τ^{2} scaling of extra work for finite-time adiabatic process with long control time τ. Such scaling allows analytical optimization of the generic finite-time quantum Otto cycle to surpass the efficiency at maximum power for the Carnot-like engine. We apply the current perturbation method to the quantum piston model and calculate the efficiency at maximum power, which is validated with exact solution.

quant-ph↗

Directional quantum random walk induced by coherence

Quantum walk (QW), which is considered as the quantum counterpart of the classical random walk (CRW), is actually the quantum extension of CRW from the single-coin interpretation. The sequential unitary evolution engenders correlation between different steps in QW and leads to a ballistic position distribution. In this paper, we propose an alternative quantum extension of CRW from the ensemble interpretation, named quantum random walk (QRW), where the walker has many unrelated coins, modeled as two-level systems, initially prepared in the same state. We calculate the walker's position distribution in QRW for different initial coin states with the coin operator chosen as Hadamard matrix. In one-dimensional case, the walker's position is the asymmetric binomial distribution. We further demonstrate that in QRW, coherence leads the walker to perform directional movement. For an initially decoherenced coin state, the walker's position distribution is exactly the same as that of CRW. Moreover, we study QRW in 2D lattice, where the coherence plays a more diversified role in the walker's position distribution.

quant-ph↗

Boosting the performance of the Quantum Otto heat engines

To optimize the performance of a heat engine in finite-time cycle, it is important to understand the finite-time effect of thermodynamic processes. Previously, we have shown that extra work is needed to complete a quantum adiabatic process in finite time, and proved that the extra work follows a \mathcal{C}/τ^{2} scaling for long control time τ. There the oscillating part of the extra work is neglected due to the complex energy-level structure of the particular quantum system. However, such oscillation of the extra work can not be neglected in some quantum systems with simple energy-level structure, e. g. the two-level system or the quantum harmonic oscillator. In this paper, we build the finite-time quantum Otto engine on these simple systems, and find that the oscillating extra work leads to a jagged edge in the constraint relation between the output power and the efficiency. By optimizing the control time of the quantum adiabatic processes, the oscillation in the extra work is utilized to enhance the maximum power and the efficiency. We further design special control schemes with the zero extra work at the specific control time. Compared to the linear control scheme, these special control schemes of the finite-time adiabatic process improve the maximum power and the efficiency of the finite-time Otto engine.

quant-ph↗

Dark information of black hole radiation raised by dark energy

The "lost" information of black hole through the Hawking radiation was discovered being stored in the correlation among the non-thermally radiated particles [Phys. Rev. Lett 85, 5042 (2000), Phys. Lett. B 675, 1 (2009)]. This correlation information, which has not yet been proved locally observable in principle, is named by dark information. In this paper, we systematically study the influences of dark energy on black hole radiation, especially on the dark information. Calculating the radiation spectrum in the existence of dark energy by the approach of canonical typicality, which is reconfirmed by the quantum tunneling method, we find that the dark energy will effectively lower the Hawking temperature, and thus makes the black hole has longer life time. It is also discovered that the non-thermal effect of the black hole radiation is enhanced by dark energy so that the dark information of the radiation is increased. Our observation shows that, besides the mechanical effect (e.g., gravitational lensing effect), the dark energy rises the the stored dark information, which could be probed by a non-local coincidence measurement similar to the coincidence counting of the Hanbury-Brown -Twiss experiment in quantum optics.

gr-qc↗

The heat and work of quantum thermodynamic processes with quantum coherence

Energy is often partitioned into heat and work by two independent paths corresponding to the change in the eigenenergies or the probability distributions of a quantum system. The discrepancies of the heat and work for various quantum thermodynamic processes have not been well characterized in literature. Here we show how the work in quantum machines is differentially related to isochoric, isothermal, and adiabatic processes. We prove that the energy exchanges during the quantum isochoric and isothermal processes are simply depending on the change in the eigenenergies or the probability distributions. However, for a time-dependent system in a non-adiabatic quantum evolution, the transitions between the different quantum states representing the quantum coherence can affect the essential thermodynamic properties, and thus the general definitions of the heat and work should be clarified with respect to the microscopic generic time-dependent system. By integrating the coherence effects in the exactly-solvable dynamics of quantum-spin precession, the internal energy is rigorously transferred as the work in the thermodynamic adiabatic process. The present study demonstrates that quantum adiabatic process is sufficient but not necessary for thermodynamic adiabatic process.

quant-ph↗