Thermodynamics of relativistic quantum fields confined in cavities

journal article in Web of Science

English

We investigate the quantum thermodynamical properties of localised relativistic quantum fields, and how they can be used as quantum thermal machines. We study the efficiency and power of energy transfer between the classical gravitational degrees of freedom, such as the energy input due to the motion of boundaries or an impinging gravitational wave, and the excitations of a confined quantum field. We find that the efficiency of energy transfer depends dramatically on the input initial state of the system. Furthermore, we investigate the ability of the system to extract energy from a gravitational wave and store it in a battery. This process is inefficient in optical cavities but is significantly enhanced when employing trapped Bose Einstein condensates. We also employ standard fluctuation results to obtain the work probability distribution, which allows us to understand how the efficiency is related to the dissipation of work. Finally, we apply our techniques to a setup where an impinging gravitational wave excites the phononic modes of a Bose Einstein condensate. We find that, in this case, the percentage of energy transferred to the phonons approaches unity after a suitable amount of time. These results give a quantitative insight into the thermodynamic behaviour of relativistic quantum fields confined in cavities. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quantum machines; Quantum thermodynamics; Quantum fields; Gravitational waves; Fluctuation relations

BRUSCHI, D.; MORRIS, B.; FUENTES, I.

7. 9. 2020

ELSEVIER

AMSTERDAM

0375-9601

Physics Letters A

384

25

Kingdom of the Netherlands

126601-1

126601-28

28

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0375960120304680?via%3Dihub