Experimental test of exchange fluctuation relations in an open quantum system

Year: 2020

Authors: Hernández-Gómez S., Gherardini S., Poggiali F., Cataliotti F. S., Trombettoni A., Cappellaro P., Fabbri N.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Firenze, European Lab Nonlinear Spect LENS, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Firenze, Dept Phys & Astron, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Consiglio Nazl Ric CNR INO, Ist Nazl Ott, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; CNR IOM DEMOCRITOS Simulat Ctr, I-34136 Trieste, Italy; Scuola Int Super Avanzati SISSA, I-34136 Trieste, Italy; MIT, Dept Nucl Sci & Engn, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA.

Abstract: Elucidating the energy transfer between a quantum system and a reservoir is a central issue in quantum nonequilibrium thermodynamics, which could provide novel tools to engineer quantum-enhanced heat engines. The lack of information on the reservoir inherently limits the practical insight that can be gained on the exchange process of open quantum systems. Here we investigate the energy transfer for an open quantum system in the framework of quantum fluctuation relations. As a novel toolbox, we employ a nitrogen-vacancy center spin qubit in diamond, subject to repeated quantum projective measurements and a tunable dissipation channel. In the presence of energy fluctuations originated by dissipation and quantum projective measurements, the experimental results, supplemented by numerical simulations, show the validity of the energy exchange fluctuation relation, where the energy scale factor encodes missing reservoir information in the system out-of-equilibrium steady-state properties. This result is complemented by a theoretical argument showing that, also for an open three-level quantum system, the existence of an out-of-equilibrium steady state dictates a unique time-independent value of the energy scale factor for which the fluctuation relation is verified. Our findings pave the way to the investigation of energy exchange mechanisms in arbitrary open quantum systems.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH

Volume: 2 (2)      Pages from: 023327-1  to: 023327-9

More Information: This work was supported by EU-FP7 ERC Starting Q-SEnS2 (Grant No. 337135), Fondazione CR Firenze through the project Q-BIOSCAN, and by the MISTI Global Seed Funds MIT-FVG Collaboration Grant “NV centers for the test of the Quantum Jarzynski Equality (NVQJE).” We thank A. Sone, S. Ruffo, and M. Campisi for fruitful discussions and M. Inguscio for continuous inspiration and support.
KeyWords: quantum thermodynamics, NV center, diamond technologies, open quantum systems
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.023327

Citations: 36
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