Homothetic quantum Otto engines---where all populated energy gaps are rescaled by a common factor---provide a reference model in which the quasistatic stochastic efficiency is trajectory-independent while work remains fluctuating. For arbitrary finite homothetic spectra we derive the two-point-measurement work distribution and reduce the first two work moments to endpoint energy moments. Specializing to a uniformly spaced ladder gives closed finite-$N$ expressions for the full work distribution, mean work, variance, and signal-to-width reliability. This ladder connects the qubit and oscillator limits, reveals a finite-$N$ reliability crossover, and demonstrates that the high-temperature and infinite-dimensional limits do not commute. The noncommutation reflects a bounded-versus-unbounded spectral distinction: at fixed finite $N$ the Gibbs state has a normalizable infinite-temperature limit, whereas the oscillator retains an ever-expanding thermal tail. The exact formulas are used to compare standard mean-output prescriptions with work reliability, showing that maximum mean output and maximum dimensionless reliability select different operating points. The benchmark is extended to incomplete diagonal reset and to finite-time unitary strokes described by transition matrices, with a finite-ladder protocol and a harmonic sudden-switch oscillator benchmark as controlled examples. Weak deviations from exact homothety are treated perturbatively, showing how level-dependent gap distortions reintroduce quasistatic efficiency fluctuations and modify work reliability. Together, these results separate finite-size, incomplete thermalization, finite-time, and weak spectral-distortion contributions to work unreliability in quantum Otto engines.
We construct quantum Turing patterns in Lindblad lattice dynamics and establish a rigorous theory of their nonlinear order and quantum fluctuations. For an explicit family of completely positive lattice generators with finite-range couplings, the first-moment equations undergo a supercritical instability at a nonzero wave number and admit analytic site- and bond-centered commensurate stripe branches. These branches are locally asymptotically stable in their reflection-fixed period-cell spaces, and projected coherent states exhibit extensive Bragg order on every bounded time interval in the semiclassical limit. We prove $O(N^{-1/2})$ convergence of microscopic covariances to a nonautonomous Gaussian Lyapunov flow, transferring strict partial-transpose uncertainty violations to sufficiently large $N$. In the homogeneous Gaussian sector, a single dimensionless ratio controls both the Turing stability determinant and the logarithmic negativity of opposite momenta, relating wavelength selection directly to quantum entanglement. Differential transport shifts the strongest opposite-momentum correlations from the infrared to the selected Turing scale. Numerical continuation and two-dimensional simulations display stripe, spot, and labyrinth morphologies whose Fourier modes and fluctuation spectra concentrate at the same selected wave numbers.
The Jarzynski equality provides a strict link between nonequilibrium work and equilibrium free energy changes. Its typical quantum formulations, however, rely on measurement protocols that destroy coherence. In this Letter, we use the resource-theoretic approach to derive a non-destructive quantum Jarzynski equality conditioned on the outcomes of an arbitrary bath observable. This yields the R\'enyi-Jarzynski equality, which quantifies a finite bath's drift from equilibrium under a non-adiabatic drive via the R\'enyi $k$-divergence. We further demonstrate that the R\'enyi-Jarzynski equality provides a tunable cost function for quantum optimal control problems where minimizing bath drift is desired, such as state preparation and gate design, enabling the minimization of cross-talk in finite quantum systems. Our toy model exhibits a transition between competing minima for some critical value of $k$, illustrating how the R\'enyi order tunes sensitivity to different regions of a bath distribution. Strikingly, when drive parameters vary across bath energy levels, minimizing bath drift requires generating system-bath entanglement.
Ben Bobell, Mert Okyay, Rahul Nandkishore· 0 citations
In this work, we extend the scattering quantum walk (SQW) framework to a lattice of energy-dependent point interactions. This yields, within the coined quantum walk (CQW) formalism, a coin operator that is directly related to the scattering matrix of zero-range potentials. The model thus provides a discrete-time quantum-walk (DTQW) analog of a periodic array of point interactions of the Kronig-Penney type, where the walker's wavenumber serves as a continuous, physically transparent control parameter for the coin operation. We analyze the spectra and the dynamics of position probability and entanglement, yielding distinct results for specific energies and point interactions. We relate the spectral structure to the spatial probability distribution and explicitly characterize the long-time entanglement behavior for each point interaction. The transmission modulus determines the quasienergy gap, bandwidth, and maximum group velocity, while also controlling the long-time coin-position entanglement for the initial state considered. The four families of one-dimensional point interactions ($\delta$, $\delta'$, crossed and asymmetric) realize qualitatively distinct transmission profiles and span the full range of behavior, including enhanced or strongly suppressed spreading and oscillatory entanglement.
Alana Spak dos Santos, T. T. Tsutsui, F. M. Andrade· 0 citations
Heating usually destroys quantum entanglement. We show that thermalization constrained to a non-Abelian strong-symmetry sector can instead generate a distillable resource that diverges with system size. In an exactly solvable local dimer chain, entanglement across an equal bipartition is exactly zero at $T=0$, whereas every fixed $T>0$ yields $E_D=\frac12\log_2 N+C(T)+o(1)$. Measurements of the two half-chain representation labels convert thermally populated non-Abelian sectors into standard ebits. More generally, for global-singlet thermal states of finite-range, uniformly bounded, locally $SU(2)$-invariant chains, there is a nonzero high-temperature interval in which the protocol yield satisfies $Y_N=\frac12\log_2 N+O_\beta(1)$ and $E_D\geq Y_N$. For the dimer chain, the full finite-size onset is governed by a universal Bessel-function crossover with $T_*(N)=\Delta/[\ln N+O(1)]$. Exact diagonalization of a frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$ chain shows the expected finite-size signatures. Thus thermal fluctuations can create entanglement across a macroscopic cut and convert it into an unbounded operational quantum resource.
The quantum Rabi model is a standard effective Hamiltonian in studies of light-matter interaction, capturing the simplest nontrivial setting in which a qubit couples to a single harmonic oscillator. Within the broader Rabi family, we focus on two special cases: the Jaynes-Cummings (JC) model, which carries an explicit $U(1)$ symmetry, and the asymmetric quantum Rabi model (AQRM), which possesses a parameter-dependent"hidden''symmetry that appears only at integer bias, $\varepsilon/\omega\in\mathbb{Z}$, and is not manifest in the Hamiltonian. We use the time-averaged entangling power as an operator-level diagnostic of these symmetry structures. Since the oscillator Hilbert space is infinite-dimensional, we compare two finite input ensembles: a Haar average after Fock-space truncation and a coherent-state average at fixed mean occupation $\bar{n}$. Both diagnostics show peaks at the integer-bias points of the AQRM, where the hidden symmetry resides. In contrast, the manifest $U(1)$ symmetry at the JC point instead gives a weak dip. Thus, the time-averaged entangling power responds to both the hidden symmetry and the $U(1)$ symmetry in the Rabi family, with the sign of the response indicating how the symmetry reorganizes the spectral expansion. These results demonstrate that the entangling power can serve as an operator diagnostic to reveal the presence and properties of hidden and manifest symmetries in light-matter systems.
Entanglement entropy (EE) is commonly studied using real-space bipartitions. We show that, in quantum impurity models, an energy-space bipartition, equivalent to the momentum-space bipartition of the bath, can display universal behavior. Motivated by poor man's scaling, we logarithmically discretize the bath and partition it into high- and low-energy sectors. For models with Fermi-liquid fixed points, including the Anderson model and fully screened or underscreened Kondo models, the low-energy EE flows to constants independent of model parameters. These constants are integer multiples of $\ln 2$ plus corrections that depend only on the logarithmic discretization parameter $\Lambda$. We show that scale invariance of the fixed-point wavefunction in energy space maps to effective translation invariance along a one-dimensional chain, allowing the fixed points to be classified by one-dimensional topological band theory. With low-energy chiral symmetry, each $\ln 2$ contribution originates from a topological edge mode. We also study transitions between distinct Fermi-liquid fixed points using the local-singlet--Kondo-singlet transition in a two-orbital Anderson model driven by an inter-orbital antiferromagnetic coupling. The local-singlet phase has an effectively decoupled impurity and nearly vanishing EE, whereas the Kondo-singlet phase has finite EE larger than $\ln 2$ per spin and orbital. When chiral symmetry holds at low energies, this distinction corresponds to a topological transition of the effective bath chain. At the non-Fermi-liquid critical point, the EE develops an unstable plateau. Its $\Lambda$ dependence resembles that of the overscreened two-channel Kondo model, supporting universality within the same non-Fermi-liquid universality class.
Geng-Dong Zhou, Zhi-Da Song· 0 citations
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