title: Quantum coherence rather than quantum correlations reflect the effects of a reservoir on a system's work capability.
abstract: We consider a model of an optical cavity with a nonequilibrium reservoir consisting of a beam of identical two-level atom pairs (TLAPs) in the general X state. We find that coherence of multiparticle nonequilibrium reservoir plays a central role on the potential work capability of the cavity. We show that no matter whether there are quantum correlations in each TLAP (including quantum entanglement and quantum discord) or not, the coherence of the TLAPs has an effect on the work capability of the cavity. Additionally, constructive and destructive interferences could be induced to influence the work capability of the cavity by adjusting only the relative phase, with which quantum correlations have nothing to do. In this paper, the coherence of the reservoir, rather than the quantum correlations, effectively reflecting the effects of the reservoir on the system's work capability is demonstrated clearly.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China and School of Information and Electronic Engineering, Shandong Institute of Business and Technology, Yantai 264000, China.
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: School of Computer Science and Technology, Shandong Institute of Business and Technology, Yantai 264000, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Li
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Bao-Ming
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Jun-Gang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shao