Jaseem Noufal, Hajdušek Michal, Vedral Vlatko, Fazio Rosario, Kwek Leong-Chuan, Vinjanampathy Sai
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India.
Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117543.
Phys Rev E. 2020 Feb;101(2-1):020201. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.101.020201.
Owing to the ubiquity of synchronization in the classical world, it is interesting to study its behavior in quantum systems. Though quantum synchronization has been investigated in many systems, a clear connection to quantum technology applications is lacking. We bridge this gap and show that nanoscale heat engines are a natural platform to study quantum synchronization and always possess a stable limit cycle. Furthermore, we demonstrate an intimate relationship between the power of a coherently driven heat engine and its phase-locking properties by proving that synchronization places an upper bound on the achievable steady-state power of the engine. We also demonstrate that such an engine exhibits finite steady-state power if and only if its synchronization measure is nonzero. Finally, we show that the efficiency of the engine sets a point in terms of the bath temperatures where synchronization vanishes. We link the physical phenomenon of synchronization with the emerging field of quantum thermodynamics by establishing quantum synchronization as a mechanism of stable phase coherence.
