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Portrait of Andreas Wacker. Photo: Kennet Ruona

Andreas Wacker

Professor

Portrait of Andreas Wacker. Photo: Kennet Ruona

Violating the thermodynamic uncertainty relation in the three-level maser

Author

  • Alex Arash Sand Kalaee
  • Andreas Wacker
  • Patrick Potts

Summary, in English

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.

Department/s

  • Mathematical Physics
  • NanoLund: Center for Nanoscience

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Publication/Series

Physical Review E

Volume

104

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Physical Society

Topic

  • Physical Sciences

Status

Published

Project

  • KAW Project: Nanothermodynamics for optoelectronic semiconductor devices

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2470-0045