Concentrating Energy by Measurement

Abstract

In a recent article [A. Kurcz et al., Phys. Rev. A 81, 063821 (2010)] we predicted an energy concentrating mechanism in composite quantum systems. Its result is a non-zero stationary state photon emission rate even in the absence of external driving. Here we discuss the possible origin of the predicted effect. We attribute it to the presence of a non-trivial interaction between different system components and to repeated environment-induced photon measurements.