Work Generation from Thermal Noise by Quantum Phase-Sensitive Observation
Tomáš Opatrný, Avijit Misra, Gershon Kurizki
Abstract
We put forward the concept of work extraction from thermal noise by phase-sensitive (homodyne) measurements of the noisy input followed by (outcome-dependent) unitary manipulations of the postmeasured state. For optimized measurements, noise input with more than one quantum on average is shown to yield heat-to-work conversion with efficiency and power that grow with the mean number of input quanta, the efficiency and the inverse temperature of the detector. This protocol is shown to be advantageous compared to common models of information and heat engines.
Topics & Concepts
Noise (video)QuantumQuantum noiseThermalWork (physics)Phase (matter)PhysicsMaterials scienceQuantum mechanicsComputer scienceThermodynamicsImage (mathematics)Artificial intelligenceAdvanced Thermodynamics and Statistical MechanicsMechanical and Optical ResonatorsThermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies