Marlon Brenes
Trinity College Dublin
ZOOM LINK TO JOIN IN: http://s.ic.fo/QTD_Transport191020
Monday Oct 19, 2020 / 20:30-21:00 CEST
Tensor-network method to simulate strongly interacting quantum thermal machines
We present a methodology to simulate the quantum thermodynamics of thermal machines which are built from an interacting working medium in contact with fermionic reservoirs at a fixed temperature and chemical potential. Our method works at a finite temperature, beyond linear response and weak system-reservoir coupling, and allows for nonquadratic interactions in the working medium. The method uses mesoscopic reservoirs, continuously damped toward thermal equilibrium, in order to represent continuum baths and a novel tensor-network algorithm to simulate the steady-state thermodynamics. Using the example of a quantum-dot heat engine, we demonstrate that our technique replicates the well-known Landauer-Büttiker theory for efficiency and power. We then go beyond the quadratic limit to demonstrate the capability of our method by simulating a three-site machine with nonquadratic interactions. Remarkably, we find that such interactions lead to power enhancement, without being detrimental to the efficiency. Furthermore, we demonstrate the capability of our method to tackle complex many-body systems by extracting the superdiffusive exponent for high-temperature transport in the isotropic Heisenberg model. Finally, we discuss transport in the gapless phase of the anisotropic Heisenberg model at a finite temperature and its connection to charge conjugation parity, going beyond the predictions of single-site boundary driving configurations.
Hi Marlon,
I was very happy to hear somebody talking about tensor networks, so thanks a lot for your talk. One thing I’m curious about is why you chose the swap gate approach to simulate the dynamics rather than TDVP. Is it because you’re dealing with density operators and the scaling of TDVP is unfavorable in this case?
Hi Alexander,
Thanks for the words, hope you enjoyed it!
That’s an interesting question. In the past, the swap gates mechanism to address long-range couplings has been held back by the tensor-network community. It is believed that, in general, correlations are proliferated by the action of the swap gates; generating objects with a high degree of correlations rather fast. However, this is not the case in our problem, given that Pauli exclusion limits the degree of correlations to the modes closest to the Fermi energy. Quite neat, when I think about it 🙂
Of course, when considering unitary dynamics of closed-systems, correlations can grow fast under the operation of the swap gates, in which case an algorithm like TDVP might be better suited. This is however not the case here due to the effect I described above.
Let me finalise by mentioning that the scaling with TDVP in the mixed basis (what I called “star geometry” in my talk) has been shown to be rather favourable (logarithmic growth of correlations and hence, the bond dimension) vey recently (see arXiv link attached). Although shown for a configuration without dissipation in the leads (baths), this favourable scaling might be interesting to you.
Best,
Marlon
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.12793.pdf