Abstract
We propose heat machines that are nonlinear, coherent, and closed systems composed of few field (oscillator) modes. Their thermal-state input is transformed by nonlinear Kerr interactions into nonthermal (non-Gaussian) output with controlled quantum fluctuations and the capacity to deliver work in a chosen mode. These machines can provide an output with strongly reduced phase and amplitude uncertainty that may be useful for sensing or communications in the quantum domain. They are experimentally realizable in optomechanical cavities where photonic and phononic modes are coupled by a Josephson qubit or in cold gases where interactions between photons are transformed into dipole-dipole interacting Rydberg atom polaritons. This proposed approach is a step toward the bridging of quantum and classical coherent and thermodynamic descriptions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | eadf1070 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Science advances |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 6 Jan 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2023 |
Bibliographical note
T.O. and Š.B. are supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant no. 20-27994S. Š.B. is supported by project IGA-PrF-2022-005. G.K., O.F., and E.P. acknowledge support from the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) grant no. 2019751 and from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) grant no. 2013771. G.K. acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschung Gesellschaft (DFG) grant FOR 2724, QUANTERA (Pace-In project), FET Open, and EU (PATHOS project).Author contributions: All the authors contributed to the formulation of the problem, its analysis, and the discussion of its results. T.O., A.G.K., A.M., and N.M. have carried out the analytical calculations, whereas Š.B. has performed the numerical work. E.P., O.F., T.O., and N.M. have analyzed the possible experimental implementations. G.K., T.O., A.M., and A.G.K. have done most of the writing.