English

The smallest refrigerators can reach maximal efficiency

Quantum Physics 2011-12-05 v2

Abstract

We investigate whether size imposes a fundamental constraint on the efficiency of small thermal machines. We analyse in detail a model of a small self-contained refrigerator consisting of three qubits. We show analytically that this system can reach the Carnot efficiency, thus demonstrating that there exists no complementarity between size and efficiency.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1009.0865,
  title  = {The smallest refrigerators can reach maximal efficiency},
  author = {Paul Skrzypczyk and Nicolas Brunner and Noah Linden and Sandu Popescu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.0865},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

9 pages, 1 figure. v2: published version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:09:33.770Z