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Violating the thermodynamic uncertainty relation in the three-level maser

Sand Kalaee, Alex Arash LU ; Wacker, Andreas LU orcid and Potts, Patrick LU orcid (2021) In Physical Review E 104(1).
Abstract
Nanoscale heat engines are subject to large fluctuations which affect their precision. The thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) provides a trade-off between output power, fluctuations, and entropic cost. This trade-off may be overcome by systems exhibiting quantum coherence. This Letter provides a study of the TUR in a prototypical quantum heat engine, the Scovil–Schulz-DuBois maser. Comparison with a classical reference system allows us to determine the effect of quantum coherence on the performance of the heat engine. We identify analytically regions where coherence suppresses fluctuations, implying a quantum advantage, as well as regions where fluctuations are enhanced by coherence. This quantum effect cannot be anticipated from the... (More)
Nanoscale heat engines are subject to large fluctuations which affect their precision. The thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) provides a trade-off between output power, fluctuations, and entropic cost. This trade-off may be overcome by systems exhibiting quantum coherence. This Letter provides a study of the TUR in a prototypical quantum heat engine, the Scovil–Schulz-DuBois maser. Comparison with a classical reference system allows us to determine the effect of quantum coherence on the performance of the heat engine. We identify analytically regions where coherence suppresses fluctuations, implying a quantum advantage, as well as regions where fluctuations are enhanced by coherence. This quantum effect cannot be anticipated from the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix. Because the fluctuations are not encoded in the steady state alone, TUR violations are a consequence of coherence that goes beyond steady-state coherence. While the system violates the conventional TUR, it adheres to a recent formulation of a quantum TUR. We further show that parameters where the engine operates close to the conventional limit are prevalent and TUR violations in the quantum model are not uncommon.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physical Review E
volume
104
issue
1
article number
L012103
pages
6 pages
publisher
American Physical Society
external identifiers
  • pmid:34412265
  • scopus:85112669670
ISSN
2470-0045
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevE.104.L012103
project
KAW Project: Nanothermodynamics for optoelectronic semiconductor devices
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a85fd3c6-596c-44a8-9981-27bcec57ce94
date added to LUP
2021-09-12 10:48:34
date last changed
2023-11-08 19:11:49
@article{a85fd3c6-596c-44a8-9981-27bcec57ce94,
  abstract     = {{Nanoscale heat engines are subject to large fluctuations which affect their precision. The thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) provides a trade-off between output power, fluctuations, and entropic cost. This trade-off may be overcome by systems exhibiting quantum coherence. This Letter provides a study of the TUR in a prototypical quantum heat engine, the Scovil–Schulz-DuBois maser. Comparison with a classical reference system allows us to determine the effect of quantum coherence on the performance of the heat engine. We identify analytically regions where coherence suppresses fluctuations, implying a quantum advantage, as well as regions where fluctuations are enhanced by coherence. This quantum effect cannot be anticipated from the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix. Because the fluctuations are not encoded in the steady state alone, TUR violations are a consequence of coherence that goes beyond steady-state coherence. While the system violates the conventional TUR, it adheres to a recent formulation of a quantum TUR. We further show that parameters where the engine operates close to the conventional limit are prevalent and TUR violations in the quantum model are not uncommon.<br/><br/>}},
  author       = {{Sand Kalaee, Alex Arash and Wacker, Andreas and Potts, Patrick}},
  issn         = {{2470-0045}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{American Physical Society}},
  series       = {{Physical Review E}},
  title        = {{Violating the thermodynamic uncertainty relation in the three-level maser}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.104.L012103}},
  doi          = {{10.1103/PhysRevE.104.L012103}},
  volume       = {{104}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}