Quantum correlations and energy currents across finite harmonic chains

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stationary energy currents and quantum correlations in a three-mode harmonic chain with different dissipation types, revealing that quantum correlations do not significantly affect energy current properties.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis linking quantum correlations with energy transport in harmonic chains, including the effects of initial states and temperature gradients.

Findings

Energy current mean and fluctuations are insensitive to quantum correlations.

Quantum discord can be enhanced by initial squeezing and temperature gradients.

Quantum correlations do not significantly influence energy current properties.

Abstract

We present a study that addresses both the stationary properties of the energy current and quantum correlations in a three-mode chain subjected to Ohmic and super-Ohmic dissipa- tions. An extensive numerical analysis shows that the mean value and the fluctuations of the energy current remain insensitive to the emergence of a rich variety of quantum correlations: such as, two-mode discord and entanglement, bipartite three-mode and genuine tripartite entanglement. The discussion of the numerical results is based on the derived expressions for the stationary properties in terms of the two-time correlation functions of the oscillator operators, which carry quantum correlations. Interestingly, we show that quantum discord can be enhanced by both considering initially squeezed thermal bath states and imposing temperature gradients.