Exploring fluctuations in Quantum thermal machines

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Thermodynamics is one of the pillars of natural sciences: it studies the way energy is exchanged between bodies at different temperature. This project aims to look at what happens when the processes of interest involve systems as simple as electrons, atoms or simple molecules. For such nanoscale building blocks of matter, the laws of quantum mechanics have to be invoked. Miniaturised to only handfuls of atoms, these thermal machines hold the promise of offering highly efficient ways of generating power, managing heat flows and recovering wasted energy in wide-ranging technologies, from microprocessors to chemical reactions. This project aims to develop novel mathematical tools and powerful simulation methods to understand the fundamental principles governing the performance of the smallest possible engines. The project will use state-of-the-art tensor network methods to simulate a small number of interacting modes coupled to large electronic reservoirs. In addition to numerical methods the proposed research will include a mix of analytical techniques from open quantum systems theory, quantum information theory and statistical. The project will then unravel how quantum coherence, dissipation and many-body correlations influence the fluctuations in heat and charge current flowing across the system as well as entropy production during its operation. Using thermodynamic uncertainty relations these quantities will be related to the efficiency of nanoscale autonomous thermal machine at finite power output, a key metric in its functionality. The project will also explore periodically driven devices and Floquet heating in many-body system coupled to a thermal bath.Its objectives are:1. To develop a thermodynamically consistent many-body framework for describing NESS of complex quantum systems coupled to multiple reservoirs.2. To identify how interactions, dissipation, and periodic driving of complex quantum systems influence their functionality as thermal machines and propose experimental testbeds to verify such effects.By realizing its objectives this project will make a substantive impact in our understanding of non-equilibrium steady states in the quantum regime, with immediate benefits for the broadest quantum community. In particular, the findings will be of relevance for nanotechnology, chemistry, biology and, potentially, industrial applications in magnetic materials and memory devices. At the same time the project will help identify further challenges in the design of quantum devices and will lay the foundations of new thermodynamically inspired approaches.This project falls within the EPSRC research areas: "Quantum devices, components and systems" and "Quantum fluids and solids". It complements an active EPSRC research project QuamNESS (https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/T028424/1) led by Dr Stephen Clark and involves collaborators Dr John Goold (Trinity College, Dublin) and Prof Mauro Paternostro (Queen's Belfast).