Giant rectification in segmented, strongly interacting spin chains despite the presence of perturbations

Nonequilibrium thermal rectification at the junction of harmonic chains

A thermal diode or rectifier is a system that transmits heat or energy in one direction better than in the opposite direction. We investigate the influence of the distribution of energy among wave numbers on the diode effect for the junction of two dissimilar harmonic chains. An analytical expression for the diode coefficient, characterizing the difference between heat fluxes through the junction in two directions, is derived. It is shown that the diode coefficient depends on the distribution of energy among wave numbers. For an equilibrium energy distribution, the diode effect is absent, while for non-equilibrium energy distributions the diode effect is observed even though the system is harmonic. We show that the diode effect can be maximized by varying the energy distribution and relative position of spectra of the two harmonic chains. Conditions are formulated under which the system acts as an ideal thermal rectifier, i.e., transmits heat only in one direction. The results obtained are important for understanding the heat transfer in heterogeneous low-dimensional nanomaterials.

Stochastic dynamics of a nonlinear thermal circuit with bistability

Stochastic dynamics of a nonlinear thermal circuit is studied. Due to the existence of negative differential thermal resistance, there exist two stable steady states that satisfy both the continuity and stability conditions. The dynamics of such a system is governed by a stochastic equation which describes originally an overdamped Brownian particle that undergoes a double-well potential. Correspondingly, the finite time temperature distribution takes a double-peak profile and each peak is approximately Gaussian. Owing to the thermal fluctuation, the system is able to jump occasionally from one stable steady state to the other. The probability density distribution of the lifetime τ for each stable steady state follows a power-law decay τ^{-3/2} in the short-τ regime and an exponential decay e^{-τ/τ_{0}} in the long-τ regime. All these observations can be well explained analytically.

Quantum Wheatstone Bridge

We propose a quantum Wheatstone bridge as a fully quantum analog to the classical version. The bridge is a few-body boundary-driven spin chain exploiting quantum effects to gain an enhanced sensitivity to an unknown coupling. The sensitivity is explained by a drop in population of an entangled Bell state due to destructive interference as the controllable coupling approaches the unknown coupling. A simple criterion for the destructive interference is found, and an approximate expression for the width of the drop is derived. The sensitivity to the unknown coupling is quantified using the quantum Fisher information, and we show that the state of the bridge can be measured indirectly through the spin current. Our results are robust toward calibration errors and generic in the sense that several of the current state-of-the-art quantum platforms could be used as a means of realization. The quantum Wheatstone bridge may thus find use in fields such as sensing and metrology using near-term quantum devices.

Transport and spectral properties of the XX+XXZ diode and stability to dephasing

We study the transport and spectral property of a segmented diode formed by an XX+XXZ spin chain. This system has been shown to become an ideal rectifier for spin current for large enough anisotropy. Here we show numerical evidence that the system in reverse bias has signatures pointing toward the existence of three different transport regimes depending on the value of the anisotropy: ballistic, diffusive, and insulating. In forward bias we observe two regimes, ballistic and diffusive. The system in forward and reverse bias shows significantly different spectral properties, with distribution of rapidities converging toward different functions. In the presence of dephasing the system becomes diffusive, rectification is significantly reduced, the relaxation gap increases, and the spectral properties in forward and reverse bias tend to converge. For large dephasing the relaxation gap decreases again as a result of quantum Zeno physics.