Collective-dissipation-induced dark and metastable-like states for enhanced quantum battery performance

Abstract

We investigate the role of symmetry-protected dark states and metastable-like frozen states in the autonomous charging dynamics of open quantum batteries described by a transverse-field Ising model. By comparing local and collective dissipation over a range of system sizes, temperatures, and magnetic phases, we demonstrate that collective dissipation generates symmetry-protected dark states together with a much larger set of frozen (metastable) states, forming an extended protected Hilbert space. We derive the multiplicity of the collective dark sector analytically, showing that it follows the Catalan sequence for even system sizes, while such states are absent for odd sizes. Our results show that collective dissipation can enhance ergotropy and charging power, with its advantage depending on temperature, magnetic phase, and system size. While the number of dark and frozen states is identical in the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases, the achievable ergotropy differs substantially because of the different spectral locations of these protected states. In particular, the antiferromagnetic configuration exhibits considerably larger extractable work owing to the favorable positioning of the protected subspaces within the many-body energy spectrum. Finally, we analyze the active Hilbert-space fraction and show that metastable protection provides an effective mechanism for suppressing dissipative losses while preserving efficient charging pathways. These results establish the dark-state and frozen-state sectors as key resources for optimizing the performance of open quantum batteries through engineered dissipation.