Electron Quantum Optics with Heat Pulses

Abstract: Electron quantum optics has emerged as a powerful framework for investigating quantum coherence and correlations of fermionic excitations in mesoscopic conductors. Inspired by quantum optics with photons, it explores the emission, propagation, and interference of few-electron wave packets in solid-state devices. While most experiments have focused on time-dependent voltage drives, investigations of heat transport have mainly been restricted to stationary temperature differences, leaving the microscopic dynamics of heat exchange largely unexplored. In this talk, I will discuss how localized heat pulses can be generated by performing work on an electrode to modulate its electronic temperature [1,2]. I will examine the properties of these charge-neutral excitations, including whether they bunch or antibunch at an electronic beam splitter, and present our recent proposal for generating heat pulses using light fields [3]. For ballistic conductors, the time-dependent heat current contains a Schwarzian derivative, which hints at deeper connections to conformal field theory and gravitational physics.

[1] P. Portugal, F. Brange, and C. Flindt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 256301 (2024)

[2] M. Saha, P. Portugal, and C. Flindt, in prep. (2026)

[3] P. Portugal, R. Tuovinen, and C. Flindt, arXiv:2605.02322