Nonequilibrium fluctuations of a quantum heat engine

Understand

The thermodynamic properties of quantum heat engines are stochastic owing to the presence of thermal and quantum fluctuations.

• We here experimentally investigate the efficiency and nonequilibrium entropy production statistics of a spin-1/2 quantum Otto cycle.
• We first study the correlations between work and heat within a cycle by extracting their joint distribution for different driving times.
• We show that near perfect anticorrelation, corresponding to the tight-coupling condition, can be achieved.