Extractable energy from quantum superposition of current states

TL;DR

This paper investigates the maximum extractable energy from quantum superpositions of current states in spin networks, revealing peaks in energy extraction capabilities and proposing a Rydberg-atom platform for implementation.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of energy extraction from superpositions of current states, introducing local ergotropy as a figure of merit and identifying optimal transformations.

Findings

Superpositions of current states show peaks in extractable energy.

Superpositions can surpass the ergotropy of individual current states.

A Rydberg-atom platform is proposed for practical implementation.

Abstract

We explore the energy content of superpositions of current states. Specifically, we focus on the maximum energy that can be extracted from them through local unitary transformations. The figure of merit we employ is the local ergotropy. We perform a complete analysis in the whole range of the system's parameters. This way, we prove that superpositions of two current states in spatially closed spin networks are characterized by specific peaks in extractable energy, generally overcoming the ergotropy of each of the two separate current states characterized by a single winding number. The many-body state dynamics entails to ergotropy evolving in a controlled fashion. The implementation we suggest is based on a Rydberg-atom platform. Optimal transformations able to extract locally the maximum possible amount of energy are sorted out.