Thermalization and cooling of an elementary quantum system in environments out of thermal equilibrium
Year: 2012
Type: preprint
Abstract: Thermalization mechanisms in quantum systems driven by changes of external parameters offer a great variety of relaxation phenomena, typically studied for many-body systems. What happens to an elementary, one-body quantum system in presence of an environment driven out of thermal equilibrium? This configuration characterizes several systems in biology and physics and, despite its simplicity, it may offer a great richness. We study a three-level atomic quantum system placed close to a body held at a temperature different from that of the environmental radiation. We show that this atom may thermalize to both thermal and non-thermal states, with steady populations which can significantly differ from the case of thermal equilibrium. As a striking consequence, we predict an efficient cooling mechanism for the quantum system, whose effective temperature can be driven to values much lower than both involved temperatures, without the use of any external laser source. Our results show that non-equilibrium configurations provide new promising ways to control the state of an atomic system.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Bruno Bellomo, Riccardo Messina, Mauro Antezza
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W301317987