Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: We present a new approach for witnessing quantum resources, such as entanglement and coherence, based on heat generation. Inspired by Maxwell's demon, we ask what the optimal heat exchange between a quantum system and a thermal environment is when the process is assisted by a quantum memory. We derive fundamental energy constraints in this scenario and show that quantum states can reveal nonclassical signatures via heat exchange. This approach leads to a heat-based witness for quantum properties, offering an alternative to system-specific measurements, as it only relies on fixed energy measurements in a thermal ancilla. We illustrate our findings with the detection of entanglement in isotropic states and coherence in two-spin systems interacting with a single-mode electromagnetic field.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1796411324, Nature and role of cytogenetic anomalies in feto-placental interaction., G2913786740, G6289556702, G6654477544, G6749516774, Quantum correlations in networks, Aménagement de l'espace naturel et construit en zone rurale: Conception et développement d'un Outil d'Aménagement et de gestion de l'espace rural (ODAGER), Center for Macroscopic Quantum States (bigQ)
OpenAlex ID: W4407135672