Related papers: Kinesin and the Crooks fluctuation theorem
Understanding current fluctuations is of fundamental importance and paves the way for the development of practical applications. According to the thermodynamic and kinetic uncertainty relations, the precision of currents can be constrained…
We elucidate the connection between various fluctuation theorems by a microcanonical version of the Crooks relation. We derive the microscopically exact expression for the work distribution in an idealized Joule experiment, namely for an…
We introduce heat engines working in the nano-regime that allow to extract a finite amount of deterministic work. We show that the efficiency of these cycles is strictly smaller than Carnot's, and we associate this difference with a…
The Carnot cycle imposes a fundamental upper limit to the efficiency of a macroscopic motor operating between two thermal baths. However, this bound needs to be reinterpreted at microscopic scales, where molecular bio-motors and some…
A dilute gas of particles with short range interactions is considered in a shearing stationary state. A Gaussian thermostat keeps the total kinetic energy constant. For infinitely many particles it is shown that the thermostat becomes a…
We study a refrigerator model which consists of two $n$-level systems interacting via a pulsed external field. Each system couples to its own thermal bath at temperatures $T_h$ and $T_c$, respectively ($\theta\equiv T_c/T_h<1$). The…
Achieving the Carnot efficiency at finite power is a challenging problem in heat engines due to the trade-off relation between efficiency and power that holds for general heat engines. It is pointed out that the Carnot efficiency at finite…
We study a refrigerator model which consists of two $n$-level systems interacting via a pulsed external field. Each system couples to its own thermal bath at temperatures $T_h$ and $T_c$, respectively ($\theta\equiv T_c/T_h<1$). The…
We discuss the limit cycle regime of a finite-time quantum Otto cycle with a frictionless two-dimensional anisotropic Ising model as the working fluid. From Onsagers exact equilibrium solution, we first find optimal parameters for the…
We construct an example of heat engine whose efficiency at maximum power breaks down the previously derived bounds in the linear response regime. Such example takes a classical harmonic oscillator as the working substance undergoing a…
Whether the strong coupling to thermal baths can improve the performance of quantum thermal machines remains an open issue under active debate. Here, we revisit quantum thermal machines operating with the quasi-static Carnot cycle and aim…
The quantum analog of Carnot cycles in few-particle systems consists of two quantum adiabatic steps and two isothermal steps. This construction is formally justified by use of a minimum work principle. It is then shown, without relying on…
The laws of thermodynamics strongly restrict the performance of thermal machines. Standard thermodynamics, initially developed for uncorrelated macroscopic systems, does not hold for microscopic systems correlated with their environments.…
A new kinetic theory Boltzmann-like collision term including correlations is proposed. In equilibrium it yields the one-particle distribution function in the form of a generalised-Lorentzian resembling but not being identical with the…
A quantum-mechanical analog of the Carnot engine reversibly working at vanishing temperature, shortly termed the quantum-mechanical Carnot engine, is discussed. A general formula for the efficiency of such an engine with an arbitrary…
We study the maximum efficiency of a Carnot cycle heat engine based on a small system. It is revealed that due to the finiteness of the system, irreversibility may arise when the working substance contacts with a heat bath. As a result,…
Since its inception about two centuries ago thermodynamics has sparkled continuous interest and fundamental questions. According to the second law no heat engine can have an efficiency larger than Carnot's efficiency. The latter can be…
This is a continuation of the previous work (Takata & Noguchi, J. Stat. Phys., 2018) that introduces the presumably simplest model of kinetic theory for phase transition. Here, main concern is to clarify the stability of uniform equilibrium…
The zero-temperature XX chain is studied with emphasis on the properties of a block of $L$ spins inside the chain. We investigate the quantum fluctuations resulting from the entanglement of the block with the rest of the chain using…
The response of thermodynamic systems perturbed out of an equilibrium steady-state is described by the reciprocal and the fluctuation-dissipation relations. The so-called fluctuation theorems extended the study of fluctuations far beyond…