Universal efficiency boost in prethermal quantum heat engines at negative temperature

Alberto Brollo, Adolfo del Campo and Alvise Bastianello ()
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Alberto Brollo: Technical University of Munich, CIT, Department of Mathematics
Adolfo del Campo: University of Luxembourg, Department of Physics and Materials Science
Alvise Bastianello: Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Natural Sciences, Physics Department

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Heat engines near the adiabatic limit typically assume a working medium at thermal equilibrium. However, quantum many-body systems often showcase conservation laws that hinder thermalization, leading to prethermalization in exotic stationary phases. This work explores whether prethermalization enhances or reduces engine efficiency. We investigate Otto cycles in quantum systems with varying numbers of conserved quantities. We find that additional conservation laws reduce efficiency at positive temperatures, but enhance it in regimes of negative temperatures. Our findings stem from general thermodynamic inequalities for infinitesimal cycles, and we provide evidence for integrable models undergoing finite cycles using the theoretical framework of Generalized Hydrodynamics. The relevance of our results for quantum simulators is also discussed.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-66424-1

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