Accurate heat currents via reorganised master equation

Abstract

The accurate characterisation of energy exchanges between nanoscale quantum systems and their environments is of paramount importance for quantum technologies, and central to quantum thermodynamics. Here, we show that, in order to accurately approximate steady-state heat currents via perturbative master equations, the coupling-induced reorganisation correction to the system's energy must be carefully taken into account. Not doing so, may yield sizeable errors, especially at low, or even moderate temperatures. In particular, we show how a 'reorganised master equation' can produce very accurate estimates for the heat currents when the reorganisation energy is weak and one works with environments with a broad spectrum. Notably, such master equation outperforms its 'non-reorganised' counterpart in the calculation of heat currents, at modelling dynamics, and at correctly capturing equilibration. This is so even if both types of equation are derived to the same order of perturbation theory. Most importantly, working with reorganised master equations does not involve additional complications when compared with alternative approaches. Also, invoking the secular approximation to secure thermodynamic consistency does not compromise their precision.