Universal Coherence-Induced Power Losses of Quantum Heat Engines in Linear Response

Abstract

We introduce a universal scheme to divide the power output of a periodically driven quantum heat engine into a classical contribution and one stemming solely from quantum coherence. Specializing to Lindblad-dynamics and small driving amplitudes, we derive general upper bounds on both, the coherent and the total power. These constraints imply that, in the linear-response regime, coherence inevitably leads to power losses. To illustrate our general analysis, we explicitly work out the experimentally relevant example of a single-qubit engine.