Harnessing symmetry to control quantum transport

TL;DR

This paper reviews how symmetry can be used as a resource to control quantum transport, enabling the design of quantum devices like thermal switches and exploring experimental implementations.

Contribution

It introduces symmetry-mediated control mechanisms for quantum transport, including phase transitions and transport channel modulation, with applications in quantum device engineering.

Findings

Symmetry enables dynamic phase transitions in quantum transport.

Initial state symmetry decomposition modulates transport channels.

Design of a symmetry-controlled quantum thermal switch.

Abstract

Controlling transport in quantum systems holds the key to many promising quantum technologies. Here we review the power of symmetry as a resource to manipulate quantum transport, and apply these ideas to engineer novel quantum devices. Using tools from open quantum systems and large deviation theory, we show that symmetry-mediated control of transport is enabled by a pair of twin dynamic phase transitions in current statistics, accompanied by a coexistence of different transport channels. By playing with the symmetry decomposition of the initial state, one can modulate the importance of the different transport channels and hence control the flowing current. Motivated by the problem of energy harvesting we illustrate these ideas in open quantum networks, an analysis which leads to the design of a symmetry-controlled quantum thermal switch. We review an experimental setup recently proposed for symmetry-mediated quantum control in the lab based on a linear array of atom-doped optical cavities, and the possibility of using transport as a probe to uncover hidden symmetries, as recently demonstrated in molecular junctions, is also discussed. Other symmetry-mediated control mechanisms are also described. Overall, these results demonstrate the importance of symmetry not only as an organizing principle in physics but also as a tool to control quantum systems.