Thermal conductance at superradiant phase transition in quantum Rabi model

Abstract

The quantum Rabi model exhibits a superradiant phase transition when the coupling becomes strong, even though it involves only two components: a two-level atom and a single bosonic mode. This phase transition is referred to as a few-body quantum phase transition, in contrast to conventional phase transitions in many-body systems. In this work, we investigate heat transport across an atom embedded in bosonic modes, modeled by the quantum Rabi model, between two thermal baths. We found a manifestation of the superradiant phase transition in the thermal conductance, which represents the linear response to a temperature bias. Our work can be helpful for the development of quantum heat devices utilizing controllable few-body phase transitions.