Descripción del proyecto
Recently thermodynamic uncertainty relations (TURs) were discovered in the field of stochastic thermodynamics, which fundamentally connect the efficiency, power output and reliability of any classical heat engine. Roughly speaking, these TURs imply that any efficient heat engine operating at finite power output must suffer from diverging fluctuations in the power output, making the engine unreliable. Surprisingly, these TURs can be broken in quantum heat engines allowing them to achieve a quantum thermodynamic advantage regarding their output precision with obvious implications for nano-scale applications.
The proposal research aims to theoretically analyze TURs in quantum dot heat engines and establish a clear understanding for which conditions and specific setups TURs can be broken. Unlike previous and most ongoing work this proposal directly attacks the theoretically complicated but experimentally realistic parameter regime of both strong tunnel-coupling and strong Coulomb interaction. This advance is made possible by a new thermodynamic renormalization group method recently developed by the fellow. Besides analyzing TURs in non-equilibrium steady-states, we will also analyze more challenging transient phenomena relevant for the control of device operations and derive generalized quantum TURs using a recently discovered non-perturbative fermionic duality mapping.
The fellow will be integrated in the group of M. Leijnse at Lund University, whose experience in quantum thermodynamics and transport is essential for the action, in particular for the planned close collaboration with the experimental groups at the host institute who recently achieved to measure current flucuations of quantum dot heat engines, a key step towards the first verification of quantum violations of TURs. Supporting collaborations are set up with the external experts P. Potts (University of Basel, Switzerland) and J. Splettstößer (Chalmers University, Sweden).