Experimental demonstration of quantum cooling engine powered by entangled measurement

TL;DR

This paper experimentally demonstrates a quantum cooling engine powered solely by entangled measurement, showing that quantum measurement can serve as a thermodynamic resource rather than a detriment.

Contribution

The work introduces a novel linear optical simulator to experimentally realize quantum measurement cooling powered by entangled measurement without feedback.

Findings

Quantum measurement cooling (QMC) can occur without prior measurement knowledge.

QMC is robust against measurement noise.

Quantum measurement can be a valuable thermodynamic resource.

Abstract

Traditional refrigeration is driven either by external force or an information-feedback mechanism. Surprisingly, the quantum measurement and collapse, which are generally detrimental, can also be used to power a cooling engine even without requiring any feedback mechanism. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate quantum measurement cooling (QMC) powered by entangled measurement by using a novel linear optical simulator. In the simulator, different thermodynamic processes can be simulated by adjusting the energy-level spacing of working substance and the temperature of thermal bath. We show experimentally that, without prior knowledge about the measurement to be made, QMC remains likely to occur. We also demonstrate that QMC is robust against measurement noise. Those experimental results show that quantum measurement is not always detrimental but can be a valuable thermodynamic resource.