Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EQC (Energetics of quantum correlations)
Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-09-30
Quantum technologies promise faster computing, ultra-precise sensing and secure communications. Their real-world value, however, also depends on how efficiently they use and manage energy at small scales. EQC studies how distinctively quantum features—entanglement, steering and Bell non-locality—shape work, heat and precision in devices. The goals are to (i) build an operational framework linking quantum correlations to thermodynamic performance, (ii) design testable protocols that turn those links into advantages, and (iii) chart a route to experimental demonstrations. Expected impacts range from laboratory proof-of-principle to design guidelines for energy-aware quantum hardware, supporting Europe’s twin green-and-digital priorities. Users include research groups in quantum information and thermodynamics and, longer term, developers of quantum processors, sensors and networks.
The project established a general framework connecting correlations to energy flows and fluctuations, with an emphasis on continuous-variable systems and non-Gaussian resources. We analysed when and how entanglement enhances precision/energetic performance (see public preprints arXiv:2505.24604). We introduced thermodynamic entanglement witnesses based on measurable observables ( arXiv:2505.24596 ) and developed cryptographic memory-erasure protocols that use entanglement and steering in both device-dependent and device-independent settings (manuscript in preparation). We initiated the most ambitious strand—Bell non-locality in thermodynamic scenarios—and surveyed feasible experimental platforms with partner laboratories to identify parameters where the predicted advantages should be observable. As a related contribution to the field, we studied energetics of quantum cryptography more broadly (arXiv:2410.10661).
EQC delivers (i) a unified, operational link between quantum correlations and thermodynamic performance; (ii) witnesses for detecting entanglement via thermodynamic signatures; and (iii) protocols that harness correlations for precision enhancement and exclusive-control memory erasure (including device-independent certification). Together, these results open new ways to evaluate and certify energetic advantages that cannot be mimicked classically. Needs for further uptake include targeted experimental validation on well-controlled platforms (e.g. photonic or cold-atom systems), access to low-noise measurements and non-Gaussian state preparation, and community benchmarks for energy/precision trade-offs. Results will be disseminated through open publications and, when applicable, open data/code in trusted repositories; potential intellectual-property opportunities around protocols and witnesses will be monitored.