English

Stochastic thermodynamics and the Ericsson nano engine -- Efficiency from equilibrium results

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2025-01-20 v2 Statistical Mechanics Quantum Physics

Abstract

In this work, we study an Ericsson cycle whose working substance is a charged (quantum) oscillator in a magnetic field that is coupled to a heat bath. The resulting quantum Langevin equations with built-in noise terms encapsulate a thermodynamic structure and allow for the computation of the efficiency of the cycle. We numerically compute the efficiency of the cycle in the quasi-static regime using the steady-state thermodynamic functions of the system. Interestingly, it is found that by increasing the system-bath coupling strength, the efficiency of the cycle can be tuned to a maximum. We also explore the behavior of the efficiency as a function of the pair of magnetic-field values between which the cycle is operated.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.03386,
  title  = {Stochastic thermodynamics and the Ericsson nano engine -- Efficiency from equilibrium results},
  author = {Jasleen Kaur and Aritra Ghosh and Sushanta Dattagupta and Subhash Chaturvedi and Malay Bandyopadhyay},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.03386},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

v1: Preliminary version; v2: To appear in Physica A

R2 v1 2026-06-28T19:49:22.362Z