2023/10/25 by Wenquan Liu, Zhibo Niu, Liu, Wenquan +13 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2310.16265
openalex publication_date 2023/10/25 · openalex created_date 2023/10/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The Jarzynski equality (JE), which connects the equilibrium free energy with non-equilibrium work statistics, plays a crucial role in quantum thermodynamics. Although practical quantum systems are usually multi-level systems, most tests of the JE were executed in two-level systems. A rigorous test of the JE by directly measuring the work distribution of a physical process in a high-dimensional quantum system remains elusive. Here, we report an experimental test of the JE in a single spin-1 system. We realized nondemolition projective measurement of this three-level system via cascading high-fidelity single-shot readouts and directly measured the work distribution utilizing the two-point measurement protocol. The validity of the JE was verified from the non-adiabatic to adiabatic zone and under different effective temperatures. Our work puts the JE on a solid experimental foundation and makes the NV center system a mature toolbox to perform advanced experiments of stochastic quantum thermodynamics.