Environmental-induced work extraction

TL;DR

This paper explores how environmental interactions can extract work from entangled Gaussian states without an external measurement device, linking entanglement directly to macroscopic energy conversion.

Contribution

It demonstrates that environmental monitoring induces a fixed Gaussian measurement, enabling direct conversion of entanglement into macroscopic work without external intervention.

Findings

Work extracted is independent of measurement outcomes for two-mode Gaussian states.

The amount of work is proportional to the entanglement degree and thermal energy.

Environmental monitoring converts entanglement into macroscopic kinetic energy.

Abstract

A measurement can extract work from an entangled, e.g., two-mode system. Here, we inquire the extracted work when no intellectual creature, like an ancilla/daemon, is present. When the monitoring is carried out by the environmental modes, that is when no measurement-apparatus is present, the measurement-basis becomes the coherent state. This implies a Gaussian measurement with a fixed strength $\lambda=1$. For two-mode Gaussian states, extracted work is already independent from the measurement outcome. After the strength is also fixed, this makes nature assign a particular amount of work to a given entanglement degree. Extracted work becomes the entanglement-degree times the entire thermal energy at low temperatures -- e.g., room temperature for optical modes. Environment, nature itself, converts entanglement to an ordered, macroscopic, directional~(kinetic) energy from a disordered, microscopic, randomized thermal energy. And the converted amount is solely determined by the entanglement.