Ji Wentao, Chai Zihua, Wang Mengqi, Guo Yuhang, Rong Xing, Shi Fazhan, Ren Changliang, Wang Ya, Du Jiangfeng
CAS Key Laboratory of Microscale Magnetic Resonance and School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
Phys Rev Lett. 2022 Mar 4;128(9):090602. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.090602.
Following the rising interest in quantum information science, the extension of a heat engine to the quantum regime by exploring microscopic quantum systems has seen a boon of interest in the last decade. Although quantum coherence in the quantum system of the working medium has been investigated to play a nontrivial role, a complete understanding of the intrinsic quantum advantage of quantum heat engines remains elusive. We experimentally demonstrate that the quantum correlation between the working medium and the thermal bath is critical for the quantum advantage of a quantum Szilárd engine, where quantum coherence in the working medium is naturally excluded. By quantifying the nonclassical correlation through quantum steering, we reveal that the heat engine is quantum when the demon can truly steer the working medium. The average work obtained by taking different ways of work extraction on the working medium can be used to verify the real quantum Szilárd engine.
随着对量子信息科学兴趣的不断增加，在过去十年中，通过探索微观量子系统将热机扩展到量子领域引起了广泛关注。尽管已经研究了工作介质量子系统中的量子相干性发挥着重要作用，但对量子热机内在量子优势的完整理解仍然难以捉摸。我们通过实验证明，工作介质与热浴之间的量子关联对于量子齐拉德热机的量子优势至关重要，其中工作介质中的量子相干性被自然排除。通过量子导引量化非经典关联，我们发现当“小妖”能够真正操控工作介质时，热机就是量子的。通过对工作介质采用不同的做功提取方式所获得的平均功可用于验证真正的量子齐拉德热机。
