Anti-Zeno quantum advantage in fast-driven heat machines

Abstract

Developing quantum machines which can outperform their classical counterparts, thereby achieving quantum supremacy or quantum advantage, is a major aim of the current research on quantum thermodynamics and quantum technologies. Here, we show that a fast-modulated cyclic quantum heat machine operating in the non-Markovian regime can lead to significant heat current and power boosts induced by the anti-Zeno effect. Such boosts signify a quantum advantage over almost all heat machines proposed thus far that operate in the conventional Markovian regime, where the quantumness of the system-bath interaction plays no role. The present effect owes its origin to the time-energy uncertainty relation in quantum mechanics, which may result in enhanced system-bath energy exchange for modulation periods shorter than the bath correlation-time.

The quest for quantum machine superiority over their classical counterpart is of particular interest while looking at the thermodynamics of a heat machine. The authors analyse a quantum heat machine driven sufficiently fast so as to entail non-Markovian dynamics, showing that quantum-enhanced power output and refrigeration can be achieved through anti-Zeno dynamics, which was first predicted by Kofman and Kurizki in 2000.