Experimental simulation of non-equilibrium quantum piston on a programmable photonic quantum computer

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the simulation of a non-equilibrium quantum piston using a programmable photonic quantum computer, revealing how quantum interference and driving speed influence thermodynamic work and irreversibility.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach to simulate and analyze non-equilibrium quantum thermodynamics with two-boson systems on photonic hardware.

Findings

Observation of crossover from quasi-adiabatic to non-adiabatic dynamics

Bosonic interference alters work distributions and state populations

Measured work statistics agree with theoretical predictions and satisfy Jarzynski equality

Abstract

Quantum fluctuation relations provide a microscopic formulation of thermodynamics beyond equilibrium, but experimentally accessing many-body quantum work statistics remains an outstanding challenge. The quantum piston constitutes a canonical model of boundary-driven nonequilibrium dynamics, where finite-time deformation of a confining potential generates non-adiabatic transitions, dissipation and irreversibility. Here we experimentally simulate the nonequilibrium dynamics of a two-boson quantum piston on a programmable photonic quantum computer. Using two indistinguishable photons, we encode a truncated piston propagator through a quasi-unitary embedding, with an ancilla mode representing leakage into higher-energy states outside the resolved manifold. This architecture enables direct reconstruction of thermodynamic transition statistics for both expansion and compression protocols as functions of driving speed and final trap length. We observe the crossover from quasi-adiabatic to strongly non-adiabatic evolution and show that bosonic interference restructures the resulting two-particle Fock-state populations and work distributions. The measured statistics are in close agreement with theoretical predictions and satisfy the Jarzynski equality across expansion and compression protocols for cyclic driving we further quantify irreversibility through dissipated work and state overlap. Our work identifies programmable photonic quantum hardware as a powerful platform for simulating nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics and for experimentally resolving how indistinguishability and many-body interference shape quantum work, dissipation and entropy production.