Characterizing quantum precision enhancement for multiple currents in open quantum systems

Abstract

The kinetic uncertainty relation (KUR) constrains fluctuations of individual currents in classical nonequilibrium systems in terms of the dynamical activity, which quantifies the average number of transitions per unit of time. Here, we derive a multi-current KUR (MKUR) establishing the precision limit for multiple currents generated in classical stochastic processes in the nonequilibrium steady state. We then apply our theory to identify quantum devices whose correlated current fluctuations surpass this classical limit by comparing the quantum system to a classical emulator with the same average currents in the steady state. In this way, violations of the emulator's MKUR have a clear physical meaning, i.e., that the quantum-coherent evolution reduces joint current fluctuations below what is possible for a classical Markovian system with the same energy-level structure and incoherent resources. Since the MKUR incorporates correlations between currents, its violation pinpoints nonclassical fluctuations in parameter regimes where the single-current KUR is satisfied. We illustrate the essential and complementary role of these bounds for characterizing joint current precision with two examples: a coherently driven two-level system and an experimentally motivated model of a three-level heat engine subject to parasitic environmental couplings.