68. Modulator-Assisted Local Control of Quantum Battery via Zeno Effect

S. Xie, M. Sajjan, A. Ajoy, S. Kais [PDF]
arXiv:2506.18276 — Quantum 10, 2178 (2026).

Abstract:
Quantum batteries are devices designed to store and deliver energy using quantum mechanics. In charger-mediated protocols, energy is transferred from a charger to batteries via their interaction, typically modulated through quenches that require either global or local access to the primary systems. Such control schemes can introduce noise and become impractical for long-range charging scenarios, where the charger and battery are spatially separated. To overcome these limitations, we propose a modulator-assisted scheme that enables indirect control of energy transfer using only local operations on a third system—the modulator—which interacts only with the charger. The charger-battery interaction remains always on and requires no direct control during the charging cycle. Instead, repeated unitary pulses applied to the modulator exploit the quantum Zeno effect to dynamically modulate the effective coupling strength, thereby controlling the battery’s charging speed. Our protocol enables the potential of remote, platform-independent control of energy flow and provides a framework for engineering interactions in spatially distributed quantum technologies.