No Arabic abstract
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation, originally derived for classical Markov-jump processes, provides a trade-off relation between precision and dissipation, deepening our understanding of the performance of quantum thermal machines. Here, we examine the interplay of quantum system coherences and heat current fluctuations on the validity of the thermodynamics uncertainty relation in the quantum regime. To achieve the current statistics, we perform a full counting statistics simulation of the Redfield quantum master equation. We focus on steady-state quantum absorption refrigerators where nonzero coherence between eigenstates can either suppress or enhance the cooling power, compared with the incoherent limit. In either scenario, we find enhanced relative noise of the cooling power (standard deviation of the power over the mean) in the presence of system coherence, thereby corroborating the thermodynamic uncertainty relation. Our results indicate that fluctuations necessitate consideration when assessing the performance of quantum coherent thermal machines.
The thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) is expected to hold in nanoscale electronic conductors, when the electron transport process is quantum coherent and the transmission probability is constant (energy and voltage independent). We present measurements of the electron current and its noise in gold atomic-scale junctions and confirm the validity of the TUR for electron transport in realistic quantum coherent conductors. Furthermore, we show that it is beneficial to present the current and its noise as a TUR ratio in order to identify deviations from noninteracting-electron coherent dynamics.
In recent letter [Phys.~Rev.~Lett {bf 123}, 110602 (2019)], Y.~Hasegawa and T.~V.~Vu derived a thermodynamic uncertainty relation. But the bound of their relation is loose. In this comment, through minor changes, an improved bound is obtained. This improved bound is the same as the one obtained in [Phys.~Rev.~Lett {bf 123}, 090604 (2019)] by A.~M.~Timpanaro {it et. al.}, but the derivation here is straightforward.
Thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) provides a stricter bound for entropy production (EP) than that of the thermodynamic second law. This stricter bound can be utilized to infer the EP and derive other trade-off relations. Though the validity of the TUR has been verified in various stochastic systems, its application to general Langevin dynamics has not been successful in a unified way, especially for underdamped Langevin dynamics, where odd parity variables in time-reversal operation such as velocity get involved. Previous TURs for underdamped Langevin dynamics is neither experimentally accessible nor reduced to the original form of the overdamped Langevin dynamics in the zero-mass limit. Here, we find an operationally accessible TUR for underdamped Langevin dynamics with an arbitrary time-dependent protocol. We show that the original TUR is a consequence of our underdamped TUR in the zero-mass limit. This indicates that the TUR formulation presented here can be regarded as the universal form of the TUR for general Langevin dynamics. The validity of our result is examined and confirmed for three prototypical underdamped Langevin systems and their zero-mass limits; free diffusion dynamics, charged Brownian particle in a magnetic field, and molecular refrigerator.
Recently, a thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) has been formulated for classical Markovian systems demonstrating trade-off between precision (current fluctuation) and cost (dissipation). Systems that violate the TUR are interesting as they overcome another trade-off relation concerning the efficiency of a heat engine, its power, and its stability (power fluctuations). Here, we analyze the root, extent, and impact on performance of TUR violations in quantum thermoelectric junctions at steady state. Considering noninteracting electrons, first we show that only the classical component of the current noise, arising from single-electron transfer events follows the TUR. The remaining, quantum part of current noise is therefore responsible for the potential violation of TUR in such quantum systems. Next, focusing on the resonant transport regime we determine the parameter range in which the violation of the TUR can be observed---for both voltage-biased junctions and thermoelectric engines. We illustrate our findings with exact numerical simulations of a serial double quantum dot system. Most significantly, we demonstrate that the TUR always holds in noninteracting thermoelectric generators when approaching the thermodynamic efficiency limit.
We propose a quantum absorption refrigerator using the quantum physics of resonant tunneling through quantum dots. The cold and hot reservoirs are fermionic leads, tunnel coupled via quantum dots to a central fermionic cavity, and we propose configurations in which the heat absorbed from the (very hot) central cavity is used as a resource to selectively transfer heat from the cold reservoir on the left, to the hot reservoir on the right. The heat transport in the device is particle---hole symmetric; we find two regimes of cooling as a function of the energy of the dots---symmetric with respect to the Fermi energy of the reservoirs---and we associate them to heat transfer by electrons above the Fermi level, and holes below the Fermi level, respectively. We also discuss optimizing the cooling effect by fine-tuning the energy of the dots as well as their linewidth, and characterize regimes where the transport is thermodynamically reversible such that Carnot Coefficent of Performance is achieved with zero cooling power delivered.