Editor’s Series Webinar—Quantum Focus, Session 3 of 3

Researchers have designed quantum thermal machines including quantum engines, refrigerators, and batteries. Some of these machines have been realized experimentally, yet most are not useful. For example, quantum engines can output much less power than many macroscopic counterparts. Yet cooling a quantum engine, so that it behaves quantum mechanically, costs substantial work; and controlling the engine costs more resources. Autonomous quantum machines, which require no time-dependent classical control, offer greater hope for practicality. In this webinar, we will illustrate an autonomous quantum refrigerator that can reset computational qubits in a superconducting-qubit quantum computer. In a proof-of-principle experiment, the refrigerator cooled an initially excited qubit to approximately 22 mK, lower than the temperatures achieved by some state-of-the-art reset protocols. Also, we will propose criteria for building useful autonomous quantum machines, inspired by DiVincenzo’s for useful quantum computers.

Key Learnings for Attendees:

• Quantum thermodynamics is a burgeoning field that has begun pivoting from providing foundational insights to enabling useful applications.
• Autonomous quantum machines offer hope for realizing practical applications of quantum thermodynamics.
• An autonomous quantum refrigerator, experimentally realized recently, has the potential to facilitate quantum computing by resetting qubits between computations.

Who Should Attend:

• Physicists
• Engineers
• Chemists

About the PT Editor’s Series:

The Editor’s Series of webinars runs throughout the year and comprises a range of popular topics hand-selected by the PT editorial team based on their alignment with our audience’s diverse interests. Stay subscribed to our emails to hear about future events on different topical areas.