Steady-state Bell nonlocality in an autonomous quantum thermal machine

Abstract

A quantum thermal machine is presented that is able to autonomously generate steady-state Bell nonlocality. A Lindblad equation is derived for two qubits that are incoherently coupled to a pair of thermal baths and the resulting Liouvillian is found to have a strong symmetry. This out-of-equilibrium system can generate Bell-nonlocal steady states across a range of parameters and at arbitrarily high temperatures for certain initial conditions. To analyse how the machine operates in a more realistic setting, experimental imperfections are then included via a stochastic perturbation to the system Hamiltonian. This breaks the strong symmetry and results in collective and local dephasing noise. It is found that if the sole source of noise is local noise, then the steady state is Bell local. The co-presence of collective noise is then shown to be advantageous, with the ability to increase the degree of Bell-inequality violation and transform a steady state from Bell local to Bell nonlocal.