Non-positive energy quasidistributions in coherent collision models

Year: 2025

Authors: Pezzutto M., De Chiara G., Gherardini S.

Autors Affiliation: Consiglio Nazl Ric CNR INO, Ist Nazl Ott, Largo Enrico Fermi 6, I-50125 Florence, Italy; Queens Univ Belfast, Ctr Quantum Mat & Technol, Sch Math & Phys, Belfast BT7 1NN, North Ireland; Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Dept Fis, Fis Teor Informacio & Fenomens Quant, Bellaterra 08193, Spain; Univ Firenze, European Lab Nonlinear Spect, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.

Abstract: We determine the Kirkwood-Dirac quasiprobability (KDQ) distribution associated to the stochastic instances of internal energy variations for the quantum system and environment particles in coherent Markovian collision models. In the case the interactions between the quantum system and the particles do not conserve energy, the KDQ of the non-energy-preserving stochastic work is also derived. These KDQ distributions can account for non-commutativity, and return the unperturbed average values and variances for a generic interaction-time, and generic local initial states of the quantum system and environment particles. Using this nonequilibrium-physics approach, we certify the conditions under which the collision process of the model exhibits quantum traits, and we quantify the rate of energy exchanged by the quantum system by looking at the variance of the KDQ energy distributions. Finally, we propose an experimental test of our results on a superconducting quantum circuit implementing a qubit system, with microwave photons representing the environment particles.

Journal/Review: QUANTUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Volume: 10 (3)      Pages from: 35066-1  to: 35066-19

More Information: The authors acknowledge enlightening discussions with Kenza Hammam, Alessandra Colla, Salvatore Lorenzo, Mauro Paternostro, Andrea Smirne, and Bassano Vacchini. M P and S G acknowledge financial support from the PRIN Project 2022FEXLYB Quantum Reservoir Computing (QuReCo). S G thanks the PNRR MUR Project PE0000023-NQSTI funded by the European Union-Next Generation EU. G D C and S G acknowledge support from the Royal Society Project IES R3 223086 ’Dissipation-based quantum inference for out-of-equilibrium quantum many-body systems’.
KeyWords: quantum thermodynamics; collision models; quasiprobabilities; quantum coherence; non-equilibrium steady states; stochastic thermodynamics
DOI: 10.1088/2058-9565/aded2e