arXiv subjects

Milton Aguilar

Publications and source records attributed to Milton Aguilar.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Robust many-body quantum batteries

Realistic work extraction from many-body quantum batteries must be local. However, only a small fraction of energy eigenstates of a generic many-body system, called scars, can support local extraction. The remaining bulk is useless for the task due to the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Here we devise a universal low-complexity protocol that steers any initial state towards exactly one scar---representing a charged state of the battery---from which a macroscopic amount of work can be extracted using local unitary operations. This is achieved by leveraging the nontrivial interplay of engineered dissipation and continuous indirect measurement that, in addition, leads to enhanced stability and charging speed compared to any other strategy using these processes independently. Moreover, the protocol works directly on the hardware level, in that it requires no simulation or suppression of interactions between subsystems. Our construction thereby enables macroscopic charge storage in steady states of generic nonintegrable many-body systems indefinitely, from which a reliable stream of work can be extracted via purely local means.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Minimal-backaction work statistics of coherent engines

Determining the work statistics of quantum engines is challenging due to measurement backaction. We here show that a dynamic Bayesian network-based measurement scheme, which preserves quantum coherence within an engine cycle, is minimally invasive, in the sense that the averaged measured state over one cycle exactly coincides with the unmeasured state. It therefore provides a general framework to investigate energy exchange statistics in quantum machines. This stands in contrast to the standard two-point measurement protocol, whose backaction can be so strong that it generally fails to reproduce the average work output of a coherent motor. It may even alter its mode of operation, causing it to cease functioning as an engine under observation. We further demonstrate that recently proposed universal fluctuation bounds do not necessarily apply to coherent machines.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Correlated quantum machines beyond the standard second law

The laws of thermodynamics strongly restrict the performance of thermal machines. Standard thermodynamics, initially developed for uncorrelated macroscopic systems, does not hold for microscopic systems correlated with their environments. We here derive an exact formula for the efficiency of any cyclically driven quantum engine by using generalized laws of quantum thermodynamics that account for all possible correlations between all involved parties, including initial correlations. Furthermore, we demonstrate the existence of two basic modes of engine operation: the usual thermal case, where heat is converted into work, and a novel athermal regime, where work is extracted from entropic resources, such as system-bath correlations. In the latter regime, the efficiency is not bounded by the usual Carnot formula. Our results provide a unified formalism to determine the efficiency of correlated microscopic quantum machines.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Power-efficiency-stability trade-off in quantum information engines

Efficiency and power are two central measures of the performance of thermal machines. We here study the power-efficiency-stability trade-off in a finite-time quantum Carnot information engine, in which an information reservoir replaces the usual cold bath of a quantum Carnot engine. We analytically evaluate mean and variance of the work output, and demonstrate that maximum efficiency can be reached at both finite work output and finite work output fluctuations. We additionally show that the relative work output fluctuations may be smaller than those of the corresponding Carnot heat engine. This result implies that the finite-time quantum Carnot information engine can be more stable than the quantum Carnot heat engine, an important property for practical applications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

General theory for thermal and nonthermal quantum linear engines

We present the exact theory of quantum engines whose working medium is a network of driven oscillators performing an arbitrary cyclic process while coupled to thermal and nonthermal reservoirs. We show that when coupled to a single reservoir work cannot be extracted unless there is population inversion, and prove that the ratio between the heat flowing out and into the working medium cannot be arbitrarily small, satisfying a form of Clausius inequality. We use such identity to prove that the efficiency of linear quantum engines satisfies a generalized bound, which coincides with the Carnot limit for thermal reservoirs. The previous results enable us to estimate the cost of preparing nonthermal reservoirs, which, if available, could be used to violate the Carnot limit.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Time-extensive classical and quantum correlations in thermal machines

We study intraenvironmental classical and quantum correlations in a thermal machine, which is modeled as a driven quantum system coupled with thermal reservoirs. We compute the mutual information, the quantum discord, and the entanglement between two parts of the environment formed by oscillators centered around two different frequencies. We show that there are only two processes that generate time-extensive correlations in the long-time limit. First, there is a resonant process which is responsible for the transport of excitations between different environmental modes due to the absorption (or emission) of energy from (or into) the driving field. Second, there is a nonresonant process that transforms the energy from the external driving into pairs of excitations in two environmental modes. We show that there is a regime when the mutual information and the quantum discord between the parts of the environment correlated by these two processes grow quadratically in time, while entanglement production is time-extensive.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Entanglement generation in quantum thermal machines

We show that in a linear quantum machine, a driven quantum system that evolves while coupled with thermal reservoirs, entanglement between the reservoir modes is unavoidably generated. This phenomenon, which occurs at sufficiently low temperatures and is at the heart of the third law of thermodynamics, is a consequence of a simple process: the transformation of the energy of the driving field into pairs of excitations in the reservoirs. For a driving with frequency $ω_{d}$ we show entanglement exists between environmental modes whose frequencies satisfy the condition $ω_{i} + ω_{j}= ω_{d}$. We show that this entanglement can persist for temperatures that can be significantly higher than the lowest achievable ones with sideband resolved cooling methods.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Causal Relativistic Hydrodynamics of Conformal Fermi-Dirac Gases

In this paper we address the derivation of causal relativistic hydrodynamics, formulated within the framework of Divergence Type Theories (DTTs), from kinetic theory for spinless particles obeying Fermi-Dirac statistics. The approach leads to expressions for the particle current and energy momentum tensor that are formally divergent, but may be given meaning through a process of regularization and renormalization. We demonstrate the procedure through an analysis of the stability of an homogeneous anisotropic configuration. In the DTT framework, as in kinetic theory, these configurations are stable. By contrast, hydrodynamics as derived from the Grad approximation would predict that highly anisotropic configurations are unstable.

hep-ph↗