Unifying quantum heat transfer in a nonequilibrium spin-boson model with full counting statistics

TL;DR

This paper develops a generalized theoretical framework to analyze quantum heat transfer statistics in a driven nonequilibrium spin-boson model, revealing how coupling strength and external modulations influence heat flux and noise.

Contribution

It introduces a unified approach using a nonequilibrium polaron-transformed Redfield equation with counting fields, bridging weak and strong coupling regimes in quantum heat transfer analysis.

Findings

Maximal heat flux and noise at moderate coupling

Finite bias enhances transport quantities in weak coupling

Geometric-phase heat flux behavior varies with coupling and bias

Abstract

To study the full counting statistics of quantum heat transfer in a driven nonequilibrium spin-boson model, we develop a generalized nonequilibrium polaron-transformed Redfield equation with an auxiliary counting field. This enables us to study the impact of qubit-bath coupling ranging from weak to strong regimes. Without external modulations, we observe maximal values of both steady state heat flux and noise power at moderate coupling regimes, below which we find those two transport quantities are enhanced by the finite qubit energy bias. With external modulations, the geometric-phase-induced heat flux shows monotonic decrease as increasing the qubit-bath coupling at zero qubit energy bias (without bias). While under finite qubit energy bias (with bias), the geometric-phase-induced heat flux exhibits an interesting reversal behavior in strong coupling regime. Our results unify the seemingly contradictory results in weak and strong qubit-bath coupling regimes, and provide detailed dissections for the quantum fluctuation of nonequilibrium heat transfer.