Local and Effective Temperatures of Quantum Driven Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces methods to define and analyze local and effective temperatures in quantum driven systems, revealing their behavior and spatial fluctuations under weak driving conditions.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to defining local and effective temperatures in out-of-equilibrium quantum systems using thermometers and fluctuation-dissipation relations.

Findings

Local and effective temperatures coincide in weak driving regimes.

Local temperature exhibits spatial oscillations and fluctuations.

Regions of the sample can be heated or cooled due to driving.

Abstract

We introduce thermometers to define the local temperature of an electronic system driven out-of-equilibrium by local AC fields. We also define the effective temperature in terms of a local fluctuation-dissipation-relation. We show that within the weak driving regime these two temperatures coincide. We also discuss the behavior of the local temperature along the sample. We show that it exhibits spatial fluctuations following an oscillatory pattern. For weak driving, regions of the sample become heated, while others become cooled as a consequence of the driving.