Reversing Heat Flow by Coherence in a Multipartite Quantum System
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.00198 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 1 Jan 2026] Title:Reversing Heat Flow by Coherence in a Multipartite Quantum System Authors:Keyi Huang, Qi Zhang, Xiangjing Liu, Ruiqing Li, Xinyue Long, Hongfeng Liu, Xiangyu Wang, Yu-ang Fan, Yuxuan Zheng, Yufang Feng, Yu Zhou, Jack Ng, Xinfang Nie, Zhong-Xiao Man, Dawei Lu View a PDF of the paper titled Reversing Heat Flow by Coherence in a Multipartite Quantum System, by Keyi Huang and 14 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:The second law of thermodynamics dictates that heat flows spontaneously from a high-temperature entity to a lower-temperature one. Yet, recent advances have demonstrated that quantum correlations between a system and its thermal environment can induce a reversal of heat flow, challenging classical thermodynamic expectations. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that internal quantum coherence in a multipartite spin system can also reverse heat flow, without relying on initial correlations with the environment. Under the collision model with cascade interaction, we verify that both the strength and the phase of the coherence term determine the direction and magnitude of energy transfer. These results enable precise control of heat flow using only local quantum properties. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2601.00198 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.00198v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.00198 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Xiangjing Liu [view email] [v1] Thu, 1 Jan 2026 04:19:26 UTC (1,649 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Reversing Heat Flow by Coherence in a Multipartite Quantum System, by Keyi Huang and 14 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)