Journal Article

Nonequilibrium quantum heat transport between structured environments

Pleasance, Graeme, Petruccione, Francesco

2024

Overview

We apply the hierarchical equations of motion technique to analyzing nonequilibrium heat transport in a spin-boson type model, whereby heat transfer through a central spin is mediated by an intermediate pair of coupled harmonic oscillators. The coupling between each pair of oscillators is shown to introduce a localized gap into the effective spectral densities characterizing the system–oscillator–reservoir interactions. Compared to the case of a single mediating oscillator, we find the heat current to be drastically modified at weak system-bath coupling. In particular, a second-order treatment fails to capture the correct steady-state behavior in this regime, which stems from the λ 4 -scaling of the energy transfer rate to lowest order in the coupling strength λ . This leads naturally to a strong suppression in the steady-state current in the asymptotically weak coupling limit. On the other hand, the current noise follows the same scaling as in the single oscillator case in accordance with the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Additionally, we find the heat current to be consistent with Fourier’s law even at large temperature bias. Our analysis highlights a novel mechanism for controlling heat transport in nanoscale systems based on tailoring the spectral properties of thermal environments.

• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Subject: Coupling / Energy transfer / Equations of motion / Harmonic oscillators / Heat transfer / nonperturbative open quantum dynamics / Oscillators / Physics / quantum heat transport / quantum thermodynamics / Steady state / System theory / Thermal environments