Quantum Batteries Charge with Explosions in a Time Loop express
In quantum batteries, charging can be accelerated by shuffling the steps in time, like a deck of cards. Instead of a smooth energy climb, you get abrupt efficiency explosions, like microscopic supernovae inside atoms. These bursts repeat with the precision of cosmic pulsars, only billions of times more frequent.
Experiments on IonQ, Quantinuum, and IBM quantum processors show that the more chargers are looped, the longer the peaks last. Surprisingly, thermal chaos, which kills charge in regular batteries, here helps store energy. This points toward ultra-fast batteries for nanodevices — for instance, implants powered by a single flash.
Original abstract
as written by the authors arXiv:2603.22761
Enhancement of quantum battery performance is a popular subject in quantum thermodynamics. An interesting phenomenon is the quick charging effect [Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 023136 (2024)], which has been explored by utilizing a quantum interferometric technique known as superposition of trajectories. A similar technique used to boost quantum battery performance is indefinite causal order. Here, we propose a new charging protocol that utilizes cyclic indefinite causal order, whereby $$N$$ charging sequences are superposed when utilizing $$N$$ chargers. We observe charging efficiency bursts when implementing our cyclic indefinite charging protocol. The duration of these bursts increase with $$N$$. Additionally, we present a circuit model to implement our charging protocol for the two-charger scenario and perform proof-of-concept demonstrations on IonQ, Quantinuum and IBMQ quantum processors. The results validate the existence of charging efficiency bursts as shown by our theoretical analysis and numerical simulations.
Thermal motion of particles, entropy, usually makes batteries lose energy. Here, this chaos becomes an ally, speeding up charging.