Quantum Jarzynski equality of measurement-based work extraction

TL;DR

This paper critically examines quantum heat engines using a measurement-based work extraction framework, deriving a quantum Jarzynski equality that reveals significant fluctuations in work for non-cyclic processes, challenging traditional assumptions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the inappropriateness of assuming unitary evolution in quantum heat engines and derives a new quantum Jarzynski equality based on measurement-based work extraction.

Findings

Unitary evolution assumptions lead to diverging energy transfer variance.

Derived a quantum Jarzynski equality for measurement-based work.

Fluctuations in work can exceed unity in non-cyclic processes.

Abstract

Many studies of quantum-size heat engines assume that the dynamics of an internal system is unitary and that the extracted work is equal to the energy loss of the internal system. Both assumptions, however, should be under scrutiny. In the present paper, we analyze quantum-scale heat engines, employing the measurement-based formulation of the work extraction recently introduced by Hayashi and Tajima~[arXiv:1504.06150]. We first demonstrate the inappropriateness of the unitary time evolution of the internal system (namely the first assumption above) using a simple two-level system; we show that the variance of the energy transferred to an external system diverges when the dynamics of the internal system is approximated to a unitary time evolution. We second derive the quantum Jarzynski equality based on the formulation of Hayashi and Tajima as a relation for the work measured by an external macroscopic apparatus. The right-hand side of the equality reduces to unity for "natural" cyclic processes, but fluctuates wildly for non-cyclic ones, exceeding unity often. This fluctuation should be detectable in experiments and provide evidence for the present formulation.