Shape, orientation and magnitude of the curl quantum flux, the coherence and the statistical correlations in energy transport at nonequilibrium steady state

TL;DR

This paper models quantum energy transport in coupled oscillators, linking microscopic quantum flux properties to macroscopic observables, and demonstrates how coherence enhances heat transfer efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a geometric and quantitative framework for analyzing quantum nonequilibrium flux, coherence, and correlations in vibrational energy transport.

Findings

Curl quantum flux shape and polarization relate microscopic and macroscopic properties.

Coherence significantly enhances heat current and efficiency.

Localization affects the transition between coherent and incoherent transport regimes.

Abstract

We provide a quantitative description of the nonequilibriumness based on the model of coupled oscillators interacting with multiple energy sources. This can be applied to the study of vibrational energy transport in molecules. The curl quantum flux quantifying the nonequilibriumness and time-irreversibility is quantified in the coherent representation and we find the geometric description of the shape and polarization of the flux which provides the connection between the microscopic description of quantum nonequilibriumness and the macroscopic observables, i.e., correlation function. We use the Wilson loop integral to quantify the magnitude of curl flux, which is shown to be correlated to the correlation function as well. Coherence contribution is explicitly demonstrated to be non-trivial and to considerably promote the heat transport quantified by heat current and efficiency. This comes from the fact that coherence effect is microscopically reflected by the geometric description of the flux. To uncover the effect of vibron-phonon coupling between the vibrational modes of molecular stretching (vibron) and the molecular chain (phonon), we further explore the influences of localization, which leads to the coherent and incoherent regimes that are characterised by the current-current correlations.