Quantum Information Processing (2019) 18:205 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-019-2325-3 The study of interference effect in a globally coupled quantum network Ye-Xiong Zeng 1 · Jian Shen 2 · Tesfay Gebremariam 1 · Chong Li 1 Received: 21 January 2019 / Accepted: 9 May 2019 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract We investigate the quantum interference effect in a globally coupled quantum net- work that is composed of N lowly dissipative optical cavities and a highly dissipative cavity. After effectively eliminating the highly dissipative mode, we obtain the effec- tive master equation including some additional terms. In particular, these additional terms can explain the interference effect between any two different coupling paths of the quantum network. To demonstrate the practical application of the interference effect, we consider the manipulation of heat flows as an example. The results show that the heat currents can be effectively dominated by adjusting interference angles and amplitudes, and thus the function of some thermal devices can be achieved, such as the thermal diode, thermal switch, and thermal modulator. Keywords Master equation · Quantum network · Interference effect · Heat current 1 Introduction Quantum networks constructed in many-body systems have provided a significant convenience for quantum information processing (QIP) [1–5]. In the last two decades, theoretical developments and successful experimental demonstrations have witnessed tremendous advances in various quantum networks [6–9]. Actually, globally coupled quantum network [10], as a kind of regular network, describes the coupling between any two nodes and can be selected as a potential quantum device. Up to now, quantum manipulation technique has been widely adopted in globally coupled quantum net- works due to its high flexibility and stability [11–13]. Moreover, most of the efforts in the field of quantum manipulation are used to design some external control fields [14– 21], while these control fields may introduce classical noise. Hence, some attempts B Chong Li lichong@dlut.edu.cn 1 School of Physics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China 2 Fundamental Education College, Dalian Neusoft University of Information, Dalian 116023, China 0123456789().: V,-vol 123