We investigate the evolution of a target qubit caused by its multiple random collisions with $N$-qubit clusters. Depending on the cluster state, the evolution of the target qubit may correspond to its effective interaction with a thermal bath, a coherent (laser) drive, or a squeezed bath. In cases where the target qubit relaxes to a thermal state, its dynamics can exhibit a quantum advantage, whereby the target-qubit temperature can be scaled up proportionally to $N^2$ and the thermalization time can be shortened by a similar factor, provided the appropriate coherence in the cluster is prepared by nonthermal means. We dub these effects quantum superthermalization because of the analogies to superradiance. Experimental realizations of these effects are suggested.

We present an exact analytical solution of the anisotropic Hopfield model, and we use it to investigate in detail the spectral and thermometric response of two ultrastrongly coupled quantum systems. Interestingly, we show that depending on the initial state of the coupled system, the vacuum Rabi splitting manifests significant asymmetries that may be considered spectral signatures of the counterintuitive decoupling effect. Using the coupled system as a thermometer for quantum thermodynamics applications, we obtain the ultimate bounds on the estimation of temperature that remain valid in the ultrastrong coupling regime. Remarkably, if the system performs a quantum phase transition, the quantum Fisher information exhibits periodic divergences, suggesting that one can have several points of arbitrarily high thermometric precision for such a critical quantum sensor.

We show that certain coherences, termed as heat-exchange coherences, which contribute to the thermalization process of a quantum probe in a repeated interactions scheme, can modify the spectral response of the probe system. We suggest the use of the power spectrum as a way to experimentally assess the apparent temperature of non-thermal atomic clusters carrying such coherences and also prove that it is useful to measure the corresponding thermalization time of the probe, assuming some information is provided on the nature of the bath. We explore this idea in two examples in which the probe is assumed to be a single-qubit and a single-cavity field mode. Moreover, for the single-qubit case, we show how it is possible to perform a quantum simulation of resonance fluorescence using such repeated interactions scheme with clusters carrying different class of coherences.

The appearance of steady-state coherence (SSC) from system-bath interactions proves that quantum effects can appear without an external drive. Such SSC could become a resource to demonstrate a quantum advantage in the applications. We predict the generation of SSC if the target system repeatedly interacts with independent and noncorrelated bath elements. To describe their behavior, we use the collision model approach of system-bath interactions, where the system interacts with one bath element (initially in an incoherent state) at a time, asymptotically (in the fast-collision regime) mimicking a macroscopic Markovian bath coupled to the target system. Therefore, the SSC qualitatively appears to be the same as if the continuous Markovian bath were used. We confirm that the presence of composite system-bath interactions under the rotating-wave approximation is the necessary condition for the generation of SSC using thermal resources in collision models. Remarkably, we show that SSC substantially increases if the target system interacts collectively with more than one bath element at a time. A few bath elements collectively interacting with the target system is sufficient to increase SSC at nonzero temperatures at the cost of a tolerable lowering of the final state purity. From the thermodynamic perspective, the SSC generation in our collision models is inevitably linked to a nonzero power input (and thus heat dissipated to the bath) necessary to reach the steady state, although such energetic cost can be lower compared to cases relying on SSC nongenerating interactions.

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We study a simple version of the dynamical Casimir effect in a single electromagnetic cavity mode containing a Kerr medium. We obtain an approximate expression for the time evolution operator valid for short times and/or low average photon number. We have found that the generation of photons from quantum vacuum is strongly affected by the presence of the Kerr medium. In the time domain it shows strong oscillations, whose frequency increases with the intensity of the nonlinear medium, sharing physical features with the case of two two-level atoms in a cavity with oscillating walls. Using a semiclassical approach, we show that Kerr nonlinearity produces a faster decrease in the photon production rate than that reported in previous studies working on quasi-resonant nonstationary cavities. We also found that the initial vacuum state can evolve in a cat sate. We expect that these results could be relevant for any study involving the dynamical Casimir effect that is willing to incorporate Kerr nonlinearities.