Heat transfer in transversely coupled qubits: Optically controlled thermal modulator with common reservoirs

TL;DR

This study explores heat transfer in coupled qubits with common reservoirs, revealing conditions for heat current control and the role of entanglement, leading to potential optically controlled thermal modulation.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control steady-state heat current in coupled qubits using dark states and external fields, advancing quantum thermal management techniques.

Findings

Common reservoirs generally suppress heat current.

Resonant coupling and specific dissipation enhance heat current.

Entanglement correlates with heat transport trends.

Abstract

This paper systematically studied heat transfer through two transversely coupled qubits in contact with two types of heat reservoirs. One is the independent heat reservoir which essentially interacts with only a single qubit, the other is the common heat reservoir which is allowed to simultaneously interact with two qubits. Compared to independent heat reservoirs, common reservoirs always suppress heat current in most cases. However, the common environment could enhance heat current, if the dissipation rate corresponding to the higher eigenfrequency is significantly higher than that corresponding to the lower eigenfrequency. In particular, in the case of resonant coupling of two qubits and the proper dissipations, the steady state can be decomposed into a stationary dark state which doesn't evolve and contributes zero heat current, and a residual steady state which corresponds to the maximal heat current. This dark state enables us to control steady-state heat current with an external control field and design a thermal modulator. In addition, we find that inverse heat currents could be present in the dissipative subchannels between the system and reservoirs, which interprets the suppression roles of common heat reservoirs. We also calculate the concurrence of assistance (COA) of the system and find that heat current and COA have the same trend with temperature, which further indicates that entanglement can be regarded as a resource to regulate heat transport.