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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Anomalous heat transfer in nonequilibrium quantum systems

Teng Ma1,2,3, Jing-Ning Zhang1, Yuan-Sheng Wang4, Hong-Yi Xie1,5,*, and Man-Hong Yung6,7,8,9,†

  • *Contact author: xiehy@baqis.ac.cn; hongyi.xie-1@ou.edu
  • †Contact author: yung@sustech.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012044 – Published 26 February, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L012044

Abstract

Anomalous heat transfer (AHT), a process by which heat spontaneously flows from a cold system into a hot one, superficially contradicts the Clausius statement of the second law of thermodynamics. Here we provide a full classification of mechanisms of AHT in nonequilibrium quantum systems from a quantum-information perspective. For initial states in local equilibrium, we find that AHT can arise from three resources: initial correlation, intrasystem interaction, and intrasystem temperature inhomogeneity. In particular, for qubit systems, we prove that initial quantum coherence is necessary for AHT if the intersystem interactions are limited to the two-body type. We explicitly show AHT dominated by each of the mechanisms in a three-qubit system. Our classification scheme may offer a guideline for developing high-efficiency quantum autonomous thermal machines.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012044– Published 26 February, 2025
  • Received 26 November 2022
  • Accepted 21 January 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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