Revealing the strokes of autonomous quantum heat engines with work and heat fluctuations

Abstract: We analyze an autonomous thermoelectric engine composed of two superconducting qubits coupled to separate heat baths and connected by a Josephson junction. Work and heat are process quantities and not observables of the engine quantum system, but their rates can be derived from the steady state expectation value of appropriate system observables and their fluctuations are given by correlation functions determined with the GKLS master equation and quantum regression theorem. The correlation functions also reveal a cyclical, dynamical transfer of energy - the strokes of the engine - hiding underneath the steady state.