English

Efficiency at maximum power of a quantum Otto engine: Both within finite-time and irreversible thermodynamics

Statistical Mechanics 2015-06-22 v1

Abstract

We consider the efficiency at maximum power of a quantum Otto engine, which uses a spin or a harmonic system as its working substance and works between two heat reservoirs at constant temperatures ThT_h and TcT_c (<Th) (<T_h). Although the spin-1/21/2 system behaves quite differently from the harmonic system in that they obey two typical quantum statistics, the efficiencies at maximum power based on these two different kinds of quantum systems are bounded from the upper side by the same expression of the efficiency at maximum power: ηmpη+ηC2/[ηC(1ηC)ln(1ηC)]\eta_{mp}\leq\eta_+\equiv \eta_C^2/[\eta_C-(1-\eta_C)\ln(1-\eta_C)], with ηC=1Tc/Th\eta_C=1-T_c/T_h the Carnot efficiency, which displays the same universality of the CA efficiency ηCA=11ηC\eta_{CA}=1-\sqrt{1-\eta_C} at small relative temperature difference. Within context of irreversible thermodynamics, we calculate the Onsager coefficients and, we show that the value of ηCA\eta_{CA} is indeed the upper bound of EMP for the Otto engines working in the linear-response regime.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1408.5467,
  title  = {Efficiency at maximum power of a quantum Otto engine: Both within finite-time and irreversible thermodynamics},
  author = {Feilong Wu and Jizhou He and Yongli Ma and Jianhui Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1408.5467},
  year   = {2015}
}