Two-qubit quantum heat engine with non-ideal measurements*

The role of quantum correlations and the resource accounting of control have been two areas of study in quantum thermodynamics. While measurement engines model the resource accounting of control, one way to assess the role of such correlations is to investigate the thermodynamic performance of measurement engines with and without quantum correlations. A complete analysis of the thermodynamic performance has to account for the cost of measurements and correlations incurred in the operation of such an engine. We discuss the role of entanglement in measurement engines by contrasting examples of measurement engines which have the same work output but with varying entanglement. We account for the cost of resetting, correlating the engine to a pointer state and also the cost of cooling the pointer state.