The Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series presents Liliana Arrachea of Universidad Nacional de San Martin, Argentina, discussing “From Qubits to Thermal Machines" on Feb. 11.

Colloquia are Fridays at 4:10 p.m.

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Abstract: Thermal machines, like heat engines and refrigerators have been at the heart of the industrial revolution that took place at the beginning of the last century. Nowadays, we are witnessing the emergence of the so called ''quantum technologies'', where the challenge is the realization of devices like transistors, diodes, sensors and computers in platforms relying on single atoms, ions and spins, by fully exploiting the quantum-mechanical nature of these systems.

The diversity of operations in quantum devices include the generation of electrical currents, quantum-state manipulation, measurements and the implementation of logic gates. The associated energy dynamics and entropy production is ubiquitous of all these systems. Therefore, it is of paramount importance the control of the energy dissipation. Even more promising is the “in-chip” realization of thermal machines in order to refrigerate and use the generated heat. In this talk I will discuss our level of understanding of these mechanisms in qubits, which are the building blocks of quantum computers, with special focus on superconducting qubits in quantum-electrodynamical circuits.