Heat transport in quantum devices

Many phenomena in nature can be described by spontaneous transfer of energy due to a temperature difference. For example a warm coffee left in a cup will gradually cool down due to energy exchange with the surroundings until the temperature of the coffee reaches an equilibrium. Modelling the cooling mechanism of quantum objects is pivotal for studying dissipation processes affecting quantum devices, e.g. quantum computers.

The objective of the project is to model heat transport in small quantum devices. These could be embodied by a network of qubits connected to several thermostats with a temperature T_i. The action of the thermostats will be modelled using so-called Lindblad master equations and memory (non-Markovian) effects on the energy flow will be explored.

Once the modelling stage is completed, the next goal is to investigate how energy flow between different parts of the network can be controlled and optimised. One can, for instance, control the heat flow between two thermostats, amplifying, suppressing and inverting it, by acting on a third terminal thus realising a quantum heat valve or transistor.

Calculations will be performed both analytically and numerically.