Thermodynamics of Hamiltonian anyons with applications to quantum heat engines

TL;DR

This paper explores the thermodynamics of Hamiltonian-based topological anyons, demonstrating their potential to enhance quantum heat engine performance and revealing emergent thermal phenomena in large systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Hamiltonian scheme for implementing and controlling anyonic statistics, enabling dynamic adjustments and efficient simulations in quantum thermodynamic applications.

Findings

Anyonic statistics can be realized in single particle pairs and scaled to larger systems.

Exchange symmetry can be exploited to improve heat engine efficiency.

Emergent thermal phenomena, including critical behavior, are observed in large systems.

Abstract

The behavior of a collection of identical particles is intimately linked to the symmetries of their wavefunction under particle exchange. Topological anyons, arising as quasiparticles in low-dimensional systems, interpolate between bosons and fermions, picking up a complex phase when exchanged. Recent research has demonstrated that similar statistical behavior can arise with mixtures of bosonic and fermionic pairs, offering theoretical and experimental simplicity. We introduce an alternative implementation of such statistical anyons, based on promoting or suppressing the population of symmetric states via a symmetry generating Hamiltonian. The scheme has numerous advantages: anyonic statistics emerge in a single particle pair, extending straightforwardly to larger systems; the statistical properties can be dynamically adjusted; and the setup can be simulated efficiently. We show how exchange symmetry can be exploited to improve the performance of heat engines, and demonstrate a reversible work extraction cycle in which bosonization and fermionization replace compression and expansion strokes. Additionally, we investigate emergent thermal properties, including critical phenomena, in large statistical anyon systems.