Dynamical phase and quantum heat at fractional frequencies

TL;DR

This paper reveals a quantum feature of heat emission in driven qubits, showing frequency-dependent peaks due to dynamical phase accumulation, with implications for quantum thermal devices and potential experimental detection methods.

Contribution

It uncovers the phenomenon of fractional frequency resonances in quantum heat emission and analyzes how drive waveform and cycle protocols influence these effects.

Findings

Resonant peaks occur at fractional frequencies related to the mean qubit frequency.

Peak intensities depend on the drive waveform and differ for odd and even resonances.

Optimized cycle protocols can recover classical behavior in fast driven systems.

Abstract

We demonstrate a genuine quantum feature of heat: the power emitted by a qubit (quantum two-level system) into a reservoir under continuous driving shows peaks as a function of frequency $f$. These resonant features appear due to the accumulation of the dynamical phase during the driving. The position of the $n$th maximum is given by $f=f_{\rm M}/n$, where $f_{\rm M}$ is the mean frequency of the qubit in the cycle, and their positions are independent of the form of the drive and the number of heat baths attached, and even the presence or absence of spectral filtering. We show that the waveform of the drive determines the intensity of the peaks, differently for odd and even resonances. This quantum heat is expected to play a crucial role in the performance of driven thermal devices such as quantum heat engines and refrigerators. We also show that by optimizing the cycle protocol, we recover the favorable classical limit in fast driven systems without the use of counter-diabatic drive protocols and we demonstrate an entropy preserving non-unitary process. We propose that this non-trivial quantum heat can be detected by observing the steady-state power absorbed by a resistor acting as a bolometer attached to a driven superconducting qubit.