Quantum bath refrigeration towards absolute zero: Challenging the unattainability principle

Michal Kolar, D. Gelbwaser-Klimovsky, Robert Alicki, Gershon Kurizki, M. Kolář

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A minimal model of a quantum refrigerator, i.e., a periodically phase-flipped two-level system permanently coupled to a finite-capacity bath (cold bath) and an infinite heat dump (hot bath), is introduced and used to investigate the cooling of the cold bath towards absolute zero (T=0). Remarkably, the temperature scaling of the cold-bath cooling rate reveals that it does not vanish as T→0 for certain realistic quantized baths, e.g., phonons in strongly disordered media (fractons) or quantized spin waves in ferromagnets (magnons). This result challenges Nernst's third-law formulation known as the unattainability principle.

Original languageEnglish
Article number090601
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume109
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Aug 2012

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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