Nonthermal Quantum Channels as a Thermodynamical Resource.

Area of Science:

• Quantum Thermodynamics
• Quantum Information Theory
• Resource Theories

Background:

• Quantum thermodynamics traditionally views thermal states as free resources and operations as energy-conserving unitaries.
• Existing research overlooks the work potential of quantum operations that do not commute with the system's Hamiltonian.
• Nonthermal quantum channels represent a potentially valuable, yet underutilized, resource in quantum thermal engines.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the integration of nonthermal quantum channels into thermal engines for maximum work distillation.
• To quantify the work extractable from specific quantum operations, including those in the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber (GRW) model.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of work distillation from nonthermal quantum channels in the limit of asymptotically many channel uses.
• Development of a framework to compute distillable work for finite-dimensional quantum operations and bosonic channels.
• Application of the derived results to bound work extraction in the context of the GRW collapse model.

Main Results:

• The distillable work from multiple uses of nonthermal channels is shown to be an additive function of the channels.
• The framework is applicable to both finite-dimensional quantum operations and bosonic channels.
• The Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber (GRW) model allows work extraction from the vacuum, but the potential power output is extremely low.

Conclusions:

• Nonthermal quantum channels offer a resource for work extraction beyond traditional quantum thermodynamics.
• The additivity of distillable work simplifies calculations for complex channel combinations.
• While theoretically enabling work from the vacuum, the GRW model's practical power generation is negligible.