2014/08/31 by Sania Jevtic, David Newman, David S. Newman +3 · 2 citations
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Algorithm #Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) #Combinatorics #Computer science #Mathematics #Phase qubit #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum entanglement #Quantum mechanics #Qubit #Simple (philosophy) #State (computer science) #Topology (electrical circuits) #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.91.012331
published as Phys. Rev. A 91, 012331 (2015) · Minor changes to match published version, references updated. 5 pages, 2 figures
openalex publication_date 2015/01/22 · arxiv created 2015/02/03 · arxiv updated 2015/02/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Distinguishing hot from cold is the most primitive form of thermometry. Here we consider how well this task can be performed using a single qubit to distinguish between two different temperatures of a bosonic bath. In this simple setting, we find that letting the qubit equilibrate with the bath is not optimal, and depending on the interaction time it may be advantageous for the qubit to start in a state with some quantum coherence. We also briefly consider the case that the qubit is initially entangled with a second qubit that is not put into contact with the bath and show that entanglement allows for even better thermometry.