Experimental detection of microscopic environments using thermodynamic observables

Understand

Modern thermodynamic theories can be used to study highly complex quantum dynamics.

• Here, we experimentally demonstrate that the violation of thermodynamic constraints allows to detect the coupling of a quantum system to a hidden environment.
• By using the IBM quantum superconducting processors, we perform thermodynamic tests to detect a qubit environment interacting with a system composed of up to four qubits.
• The experiments are complemented by theoretical findings that show efficient scalability of the tests with respect to system size.