Steering Heat Engines: A Truly Quantum Maxwell Demon.

Area of Science:

• Quantum thermodynamics
• Foundations of quantum mechanics
• Quantum information theory

Background:

• Thermal machines, such as Szilárd engines, are theoretical devices used to study thermodynamics.
• Verifying the quantum nature of these machines is crucial for understanding quantum effects in thermodynamics.
• Classical models based on local hidden states often fail to capture genuine quantum phenomena.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a method for verifying the quantumness of thermal machines.
• To demonstrate how quantum correlations can enhance the performance of thermal machines.
• To distinguish quantum thermal engines from their classical counterparts.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a steering-type inequality to bound classically extractable work.
• Analyzing the work output of a quantum Szilárd engine.
• Exploiting quantum correlations between the working medium and the thermal environment.

Main Results:

• A quantum Szilárd engine can violate the steering inequality, demonstrating its quantum nature.
• The work output of a quantum engine cannot be described by local hidden state models.
• Quantum correlations enable a quantum Maxwell demon to outperform classical limits.

Conclusions:

• Quantumness in thermal machines can be experimentally verified through steering inequalities.
• Genuine quantum effects are essential for surpassing classical limitations in thermal engines.
• This work provides a framework for detecting and utilizing quantum correlations in thermodynamic processes.