ArticleNature communications2026
Initial demonstration of a quantum heat engine based on dissipation-engineered superconducting circuits.
Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spin-Based Quantum Energy Devices: From Quantum Thermal Machines to Quantum Batteries.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Fractional Control Gate Protocols for Quantum Engines.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A hybrid Anyon-otto thermal machine.NPJ quantum information · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Quantum heat engines require precise control over thermal reservoirs and the energies of the quantum working medium. Although superconducting circuits enable accurate engineering of controlled quantum systems, they have not yet been employed to experimentally realize a cyclic quantum heat engine. Here, we demonstrate a quantum heat engine with superconducting circuits, using a quantum-circuit refrigerator as a tunable heat reservoir and a flux-tunable transmon qubit as the working medium. Starting from a thermal state, we implement a few quantum Otto cycles with a tailored reservoir drive inducing sequential cooling and heating, interleaved with flux ramps controlling qubit frequency. Utilizing single-shot qubit readout, we monitor the qubit state evolution during the cycles and measure positive output powers and efficiencies, agreeing with corresponding simulations. Our results verify thermodynamic models of quantum heat engines, advance control of thermal environments, and open avenues for exploring possible quantum advantages.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.