Radiative cooling induced by time-symmetry breaking in periodically-driven systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how time-symmetry breaking in periodically-driven many-body systems can induce radiative cooling by enabling heat pumping, demonstrated through theoretical models of magneto-optical systems under oscillating magnetic fields.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism of cooling via time-symmetry breaking in driven systems, expanding understanding of thermal relaxation and heat management in quantum and classical systems.

Findings

Time-symmetry breaking enables heat pumping for faster cooling.

Non-linear dependence of heat conductance on external fields is crucial.

Theoretical predictions are illustrated with magneto-optical systems.

Abstract

We theoretically study the thermal relaxation of many-body systems under the action of oscillating external fields. When the magnitude or the orientation of a field is modulated around values where the pairwise heat-exchange conductances depend non-linearly on this field, we demonstrate that the time symmetry is broken during the evolution of temperatures over a modulation cycle. We predict that this asymmetry enables a pumping of heat which can be used to cool down faster the system. This effect is illustrated through different magneto-optical systems under the action of an oscillating magnetic field.