Energy dynamics, heat production and heat-work conversion with qubits: toward the development of quantum machines.

We present an overview of recent advances in the study of energy dynamics and mechanisms for energy conversion in qubit systems with special focus on realizations in superconducting quantum circuits. We briefly introduce the relevant theoretical framework to analyze heat generation, energy transport and energy conversion in these systems with and without time-dependent driving considering the effect of equilibrium and non-equilibrium environments. We analyze specific problems and mechanisms under current investigation in the context of qubit systems.

Tomography of Zero-Energy End Modes in Topological Superconducting Wires.

We describe the Majorana zero modes in topological hybrid superconductor-semiconductor wires with spin-orbit coupling and magnetic field, in terms of generalized Bloch coordinates φ,θ,δ. When the spin-orbit coupling and the magnetic field are perpendicular, φ and δ are universal in an appropriate coordinate system. We show how to extract the angle θ from the behavior of the Josephson current-phase relation, which enables tomography of the Majorana modes.

Nonlocal Thermoelectricity in a Superconductor-Topological-Insulator-Superconductor Junction in Contact with a Normal-Metal Probe: Evidence for Helical Edge States.

We consider a Josephson junction hosting a Kramers pair of helical edge states of a quantum spin Hall bar in contact with a normal-metal probe. In this hybrid system, the orbital phase, induced by a small magnetic field threading the junction known as a Doppler shift, combines with the conventional Josephson phase difference and originates an effect akin to a Zeeman field in the spectrum. As a consequence, when a temperature bias is applied to the superconducting terminals, a thermoelectric current is established in the normal probe.

Optimal Thermoelectricity with Quantum Spin Hall Edge States.

We study the thermoelectric properties of a Kramers pair of helical edge states of the quantum spin Hall effect coupled to a nanomagnet with a component of the magnetization perpendicular to the direction of the spin-orbit interaction of the host. We show that the transmission function of this structure has the desired qualities for optimal thermoelectric performance in the quantum coherent regime. For a single magnetic domain, there is a power generation close to the optimal bound.

Fractional Spin and Josephson Effect in Time-Reversal-Invariant Topological Superconductors.

Time-reversal-invariant topological superconducting (TRITOPS) wires are known to host a fractional spin ℏ/4 at their ends. We investigate how this fractional spin affects the Josephson current in a TRITOPS-quantum dot-TRITOPS Josephson junction, describing the wire in a model that can be tuned between a topological and a nontopological phase. We compute the equilibrium Josephson current of the full model by continuous-time Monte Carlo simulations and interpret the results within an effective low-energy theory.

Mesoscopic features in the transport properties of a Kondo-correlated quantum dot in a magnetic field.

We study the transport behavior induced by a small bias voltage through a quantum dot connected to one-channel finite-size wires. We describe the quantum dot using the Hubbard-Anderson impurity model and we obtain solutions by means of a quantum Monte Carlo method. We investigate the effect of a magnetic field applied at the quantum dot in the Kondo regime.

Four-terminal resistance of an interacting quantum wire with weakly invasive contacts.

We analyze the behavior of the four-terminal resistance, relative to the two-terminal resistance of an interacting quantum wire with an impurity, taking into account the invasiveness of the voltage probes. We consider a one-dimensional Luttinger model of spinless fermions for the wire. We treat the coupling to the voltage probes perturbatively, within the framework of non-equilibrium Green function techniques.

Heat pumping in nanomechanical systems.

We propose using a phonon pumping mechanism to transfer heat from a cold to a hot body using a propagating modulation of the medium connecting the two bodies. This phonon pump can cool nanomechanical systems without the need for active feedback. We compute the lowest temperature that this refrigerator can achieve.

Multifloquet to single electronic channel transition in the transport properties of a resistive 1D driven disordered ring.

We investigate the dc response of a 1D disordered ring coupled to a reservoir and driven by a magnetic flux with a linear dependence on time. We identify two regimes: (i) A localized or large length L regime, characterized by a dc conductance, g(dc), whose probability distribution P(g(dc)) is identical to the one exhibited by a 1D wire of the same length L and disorder strength placed in a two terminal Landauer setup and (ii) a multifloquet regime for small L and weak coupling to the reservoir, which exhibits large currents and conductances that can be g(dc)>1, in spite of the fact that the ring contains spinless electrons and a single electronic transmission channel. The crossover length between the multifloquet to the single-channel transport regime Lc is controlled by the coupling to the reservoir.

Incommmensurability and unconventional superconductor to insulator transition in the hubbard model with bond-charge interaction.

We determine the quantum phase diagram of the one-dimensional Hubbard model with bond-charge interaction X in addition to the usual Coulomb repulsion U>0 at half-filling. For large enough X View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Quantum magnets with anisotropic infinite range random interactions.

Using exact diagonalization techniques, we study the dynamical response of the anisotropic disordered Heisenberg model for systems of S=1/2 spins with infinite range random exchange interactions at temperature T=0. The model can be considered as a generalization, to the quantum case, of the well-known Sherrington-Kirkpatrick classical spin glass model. We also compute and study the behavior of the Edwards Anderson order parameter and energy per spin as the anisotropy evolves from the Ising to the Heisenberg limits.

Dynamical response of quantum spin-glass models at t = 0.

We study the behavior of two archetypal quantum spin glasses at T = 0 by exact diagonalization techniques: the random Ising model in a transverse field and the random Heisenberg model. The behavior of the dynamical spin response is obtained in the spin-glass ordered phase. In both models it is gapless and has the general form chi(")(omega) = qdelta(omega)+chi(")(reg)(omega), with chi(")(reg)(omega) approximately omega for the Ising and chi(")(reg)(omega) approximately const for the Heisenberg, at low frequencies.